Homecoming
by Keeta1283
Summary: This takes place moments after the finale scene where Elena heads to the kitchen. Who makes it out and how will relationships survive. This tries to stay as true to the characters as the show.
1. Discovery

**This takes place moments after the finale scene where Elena heads to the kitchen. Who makes it out and how will relationships survive.**

**Alright, this is my first fanfic that is television based, so bare with me. **

Elena paused at the bottom of the stairs as she heard what sounded like a plate crash in the kitchen. What's Jenna doing in there? She thought as she walked toward the door. She heard heavy breathing as if someone was in pain and as she opened the door, she felt a sharp slap across her face that sent her sprawling. She would have regained her balance if she hadn't slipped on something wet.

"Hello, Elena." The voice was a female's that for some reason sounded familiar to her, but in a weird way.

Shaking her head and standing up, she was able to take in the scene she hadn't gotten a chance to on the floor; blood trailing from the kitchen counter, to the wall, then down to the floor where her uncle john lay apparently dead and missing the fingers from one of his hands. She was about to let out a scream, but before she could even open her mouth, a hand clamped firmly over hers while another hand slammed her to the far wall. Elena stopped her scream and was finally able to see the attacker.

"Katherine?" Elena said as she looked her over in disbelief. She knew what to expect to see from looking at the picture Stefan had, but it was a whole other story to see her in person. She could have been Elena's twin sister for how eerily similar they were.

"Why are you doing this?" Elena cried out. Katherine still had her pinned, but she had realized her grip on her mouth when she saw that she wasn't going to scream. "Not just my uncle, but everything. Why?"

Katherine gave her the once over, smiling and practically beaming. "Man, these Salvatore brothers missed me so much that they fell for a practical body double. You must feel special, Elena." She giggled and pounded Elena against the wall again.

"You humans are all alike," she finally began, still looking at Elena for similarities, imperfections, anything. "You ask so many meaningless questions that are a waste of time, and I can't be bothered to really care to answer them for you. Long story short, I do what I want, when I want, to who I want to. But," and now she looked angry, "you and your father made it personal," she said with a nod to John on the floor.

Elena tried struggling out of her grip, but it was no use. Thinking hard, Elena decided fighting was better than nothing and attempted to head butt her. A crack rang out in the kitchen, but Elena was the one left with stars spinning around her head. Katherine, with barely a hair out of place, looked her over and with a calculated look, sped to the counter, grabbed a knife, and resumed the same position; as if she hadn't even moved.

"Now are you listening? I will rip your heart out and drink from it faster than you can blink if you try something like that again."

Elena nodded. At the same time, she was hoping that neither Jenna nor Jeremy would come in. She didn't know what Katherine would do if they did.

"How did John make it personal?" Elena knew she should stall for time, hoping beyond hope that maybe Stefan would perhaps come looking for her at home when she didn't arrive at the hospital.

"Well, I asked John here to do one simple thing. Get the device and start it to get rid of those god awful vampires from the tomb" she said, placing down, but keeping the knife poised on her chest. "They didn't like me very much. The only one I cared about down there was Pearl. And she's gone because your bitch of a father decided to kill her." Elena could swear that she almost looked sad at that fact. "But that's not the kicker. You see, I told him to make it so my Salvatore's were safe from harm. But no. They almost died tonight too."

"You were there? You saw it all?" Elena said, trying to think of if she saw anyone like her at the parade.

"Of course I was there. Obviously not where I could be found. It was worth those moments of pain to see everyone fall one by one and know that everything had gone according to plan. But then I see John dragging Damon off and, " she trailed off, practically radiating anger. "Lucky for me, Stefan stepped in and saved him. How could John live after that?"

Elena didn't know what to say. Katherine was like a powder keg. If she made the wrong comment, the next thing to blow might be Elena.

"Oh but that Damon, he is looking fine these days. Too bad he's getting a little soft after all this time. You should have seen him on the porch, spilling his guts like some lowly human. At least he's still a good kisser." She said smiling and thinking of the kiss.

Elena was taken aback. "Damon knows your back!"

"Well, not yet, technically. Poor fool thought I was you," she said wickedly. "He'll know soon enough that I'm back though. I want what's mine."

"And what's that?" Elena asked, knowing the answer.

"My boys, of course, but I'm afraid there's a problem." Katherine was now looking at Elena with red eyes.

Before Elena could react, Katherine plunged the knife through Elena's shoulder, close to the heart, pinning her like some insect to the wall.

Elena screamed out while Katherine stood there enjoying her pain.

"Katherine. Stop."

She turned her head in the direction of the voice, smiling, already knowing who it was.

"Damon. I wondered if you would really forget my kiss. What my lips taste like. I was almost hurt you thought I was Elena," she said, not moving away from Elena.

Damon was looking from Katherine to Elena, who was slowly in danger of bleeding out pretty badly.

"Of course I couldn't forget you, Katherine," Damon was saying, moving slowly closer to the girls. "Hell, it's been, what, 145 years that I spent trying to find you. You think I'd forget?" He sounded both wistful and angry to Elena.

"I'd say I'm sorry for making you believe I was in the tomb the whole time, but I guess I'm not," she said, moving away from Elena and drifting toward Damon. "Well, maybe I am now that I've seen all the fun I've missed." At this, she got up to Damon's chest, stroking a finger down his chest.

Damon's gaze flickered from Katherine, who was distracted by the contours of his chest under his shirt, to Elena who was silently struggling to break free from the wall and turning paler by the minute. Making up his mind Damon looked down at Katherine, placing his fingers on her chin and tipping her face towards his.

"I seem to remember a little more passion and fire in you, Damon," she said, closing the distance between their lips.

"And I seem to remember," he said inching closer to her lips, "A time when you weren't such a bitch," he said, grabbing Katherine by the neck and gripping it tight.

Her eyes bulged an angry red and she struck out at Damon, harder and faster than he could respond.

"I thought you wanted me, Damon," Katherine said, snarling and taking on a predatorial stance.

"I did. Believe me; I was doing everything to get you out of the tomb. But the moment I found out you've been free this whole time, something changed," he said, glancing at Elena. "I realized how stupid I was for wasting my time on such a selfish bitch."

With that, Katherine pounced on a ready Damon and the claws started coming out.

Elena could hardly believe her eyes. She had given up on trying to remove the knife. It had hurt too much and with what little sense she had left, she knew that sometimes removing an object could cause more damage and bleeding. So she was resigned to watch the blurs that were Damon and Katherine until they slowed and Damon came out looking worse for the wear.

"I'm older and stronger than you, Damon," Katherine said panting and fixing her shirt. "I made you, and I can break you just as easily."

"What do you really want, Katherine? I don't want you here. Not anymore. Not ever. You had to know I wouldn't want you back after all this time," Damon said wiping blood on his sleeve.

Katherine smiled, looking at Damon as if he didn't just tell her she could basically go to hell, and closed her eyes.

"What I do know, Damon, is that you've always wanted me, and always will. I can see even that much in the way you look at her," she said glancing at Elena. "I know you better than you know you, and I came for you and your brother."

"Go to hell Katherine."

"Only if you drive the bus," she said winking and heading for the back door. "I'll find you again soon. And Stefan for that matter. He's mine too," she said pointedly to Elena as she swept out of the house.

As soon as Katherine was out the door, Damon was at Elena's side, taking in the damage.

"No. Damon, please go check on Jenna and Jeremy. I need to know they are ok." Damon ignored her plea, deciding how he wanted to take the knife off.

"I mean it Damon. I'll be fine," she said, "but I need to know my family is ok. Really. Please. Or I will rip this knife out and go look myself."

"You better be here when I get back." He wasn't convinced she would actually do it, but he didn't want her to do anything stupid.

"Like I can go anywhere," she said trying not to moan as the pain throbbed through her.

Hating having to leave her, Damon gave her one last glance and headed toward the living room. Jenna was lying on the couch, apparently sleeping. But a quick look at her head showed a small bead of blood on the forehead.

"Crap," Damon thought as he rushed over and felt her pulse. Releasing a sigh when the pulse beat back firm, if not a bit slow, he left her and headed for the stairs.

Jeremy was a different story. Before he even turned the knob to the room, he could tell something was wrong by the erratic sound of a heart beating on the other side. He opened the door to find a pale Jeremy, passed out on his bed covered in sweat. He didn't see any blood that gave away Katherine having hit him like she had Jenna, but as Damon approached Jeremy to feel for a pulse, his nose picked up the familiar scent of blood.

Looking into the bathroom, he saw an empty vial with some blood caked on the side lying next to what looked like an empty pill bottle.

"Really, Jeremy? Really?" Damon yelled at him as he shook Jeremy and put two and two together. The conversation. Anna. Blood and pills.

Jeremy's eyes fluttered open and quickly turned to confusion as he saw Damon shaking him. "Leave me alone," he muttered weakly as he started to close his eyes again.

Damon looked Jeremy over and ripped the bracelet Elena had given Jeremy off of his wrist and slapped Jeremy in the face, waking him back up.

"You listen to me, and you listen to be hard, " Damon started, his eyes dilating to a deep, black pitch, "You are not dying tonight. You will go in the bathroom and throw up like your life depended on it. "Hell it does, he thought. "And then you will drink whatever is in the cup on the counter. Do you understand?"

Though Jeremy looked close to passing out, his pupils dilated in response. "I understand," he replied, trudging to the toilet, proceeding to throw up.

Quickly, Damon grabbed a pair of scissors from Jeremy desk, rushed to the bathroom, and slit his wrist over the glass cup that was sitting on the counter. Content when it was full, he reiterated to Jeremy about drinking what was in the cup, getting a yes and the sound of vomit splashing in the toilet.

"That should at least heal some of the damage he's done to himself," he thought vaguely as he headed down the stairs. He heard his name being called lightly from the kitchen and doubled his pace.

Elena was breathing hard now and her eyes were barely open. She was still muttering Damon's name when he rushed to her.

"Elena. I'm here. You promised you wouldn't leave. Now stay with me," he said grabbing her face in his hands.

Her eyes fluttered open as she looked at Damon. "Are they ok?"

"Your Aunt has a concussion, probably, and um, Jeremy's fine. Stomach flu or something though," he trailed off. He didn't need Elena panicking. Not now.

"Thank you," she sighed as she passed out.

* * *

Damon grabbed her before she would hurt herself anymore, and gently grabbed her by the shoulders, giving a light tug as he unpinned her from the wall. Holding her as still as he good, he made the quick decision to remove the knife.

"Stay with me Elena, ok," he said, stroking her cheek and pulling the knife out in a swift motion. Immediately, a slow flow of blood started trickling out of the whole. Elena shifted in Damon's arm at the sudden release in pressure and opened her eyes, looking at Damon unfocused, before she shut them again.

Gently placing her down on the floor, Damon removed his coat, ripping the leather with ease until he made some kind of tourniquet and placed it around Elena, trying to stop the flow of blood.

Her heart rate was rapidly worrying Damon. "It's the only way," he told Elena, rolling up his sleeve. For the second time in an hour, Damon opened his wrist, using the very knife Elena was pinned with. Cradling Elena in his arm, he opened her lips and began trickling the blood in her mouth.

A few seconds into it, Elena's eyes opened and she tried closing her mouth, struggling feebly. "No," she moaned, but Damon held her firm.

"You're not going to die Elena, I promise. It's just a quick fix. A liquid band aid or something, if it makes you feel better," he smirked at her, trying to keep her awake. She stopped struggling, but she still gave Damon a scared look.

Thinking it was enough to at least keep her alive till she got some real help, Damon stood up and bent down to pick her up. Happy to see some color back in her cheeks, Damon turned to quickly rush her to the hospital, when he felt Elena tug at his arm.

"We can't just leave, Damon," Elena told him, guessing what he was up to. "Jenna and Jeremy," she said, trying to get out of his arms.

"Relax. They're fine," he said, but she didn't look convinced. "Oh, I guess this is the part where you want me to call 911, right?" Sighing, he placed a scowling Elena down again and took his cell phone out. "At least she's fine enough to give me the scowly face," he thought to himself as the line rang.

"We've got a dead man, an unconscious woman, and," Damon continued, pausing to look at Elena before entering the other room, "and a boy whose OD'd. I've got an injured girl, but I'm bringing her now." Telling them the address, Damon shut the phone and returned to Elena, bringing her outside to his car and driving as fast as his car could physically go.

* * *

At the hospital, Stefan was slowly becoming more worried. He had been standing in the waiting room with Matt and Tyler, waiting for Elena for almost an hour now, and he hadn't heard a word from her. It wasn't like her not to call to tell Stefan how behind she was. The fact that she now wasn't answering her phone had Stefan worried even more.

"Hey man, where's Elena? I thought she would have been here by now," Matt said to Stefan as he was leaving yet another message for Elena.

"I don't know, Matt. I've been wondering the same thing…" he trailed off thinking of the night's events. "Maybe Damon's seen her…."

Dialing his number, Stefan waited for an answer, but like Elena's, it went toe voicemail. "Damn it," he growled, causing furtive glances from Matt and Tyler.

Composing himself, Stefan began leaving the hospital to go look for Elena, when a rush of movement came from the double doors. A group of people in white coats were bringing in a gurney with a pale girl with brown hair and blood covering her chest. Stefan didn't need to see her face to know it was Elena. He could sense her; smell her. If he had a heart, it would have been beating out of his chest.

Behind the group of doctors, Damon followed closely, his eyes rarely leaving Elena's. Stefan took note of his bloody clothes and his emotions went from worried to angry to questioning in seconds.

"Oh my god, is that Elena? Matt asked, noticing Elena's face as she was rushed to an open emergency room. Looking at Damon in the same way as Stefan had, Matt approached, stopping the brothers from following Elena. "What happened? What the hell is going on?"

"Relax jock boy. It's getting taken care of," Damon said, pushing his way past Matt.

"Damon. Really. What happened?" Stefan asked, putting a firm hand on Damon's shoulder. "Give me a reason not to rip you apart right now."

Matt wasn't in the mood to argue with craziness of Stefan's statement, but merely stared at Damon, waiting for a response.

"So serious, Stefan. Well, long story short, I went to Elena's to talk to Jeremy about his friend Anna," he said with a knowing look to Stefan, "and then I left. I remembered something at the last minute, though." At this, he thought over the meeting with Katherine on the stairs and shook his head in anger and stupidity he felt at not knowing who she was.

"Ok, and," Matt said, stopping Damon's revelry.

"I saw the door was ajar, went inside and heard a racket from the kitchen. I go in and John's on the floor, dead, and Elena's pinned to the wall with a knife through her chest. So I brought her here. That's all I know," he said, giving a final nod to Stefan and walking to see the progress in the emergency room.

Matt looked like he had more questions, but he stood in shock thinking of what Elena was going through.

"What are you not telling me, Damon," Stefan whispered as they stood watching through the glass as the doctors worked to stitch Elena up.

"I'm not in the mood to talk right now little brother, Damon said, turning from Stefan.

Grabbing the back of the Damon's shirt, Stefan spun him around. "Damn it Damon, just tell me. What is it that happened that you feel like you can't tell me about? IF you did this to her so help me…" Stefan continued, turning almost as angry as Damon had seen him while he was locked up.

"It's Katherine," Damon told him. "She's back."

Stefan released his hold and stared at him. "What? Why would she come back now. After all this time. She already had John doing her dirty work…"

"You know Katherine. You piss her off one too many times, and boom. Your fingers get chopped off and you're left for dead."

"Where is she now?" Stefan looked around as if Katherine would be around somewhere.

"Don't know, and don't care right now. But when I do know, she's gone," Damon said, anger lighting his eyes.

Stefan looked him over, surprised at his sudden change of heart. He had spent over 100 years trying to find Katherine, and now he was ready to kill her himself. "It's Elena," Stefan thought.

"We'll deal with her when the time comes, but for now, all that matters is that Elena is safe and alive. I can at least thank you that much, Damon," Stefan said, putting an arm on his shoulder.

"Whatever," he said shrugging off Stefan's arm. "There's more though. Jenna and Jeremy should be in here any minute too."

When he told Stefan about what had happened with Jeremy, Stefan was speechless. "How could he do that to Elena. What was he thinking!"

"He wanted to tune everything out I guess. Stupid prick."

"Does Elena know what he tried to do?" Stefan asked, adding more worry about Elena on top of everything else.

"I told her it was the stomach flu, so know, she's Helen Keller." Damon said, smirking. "She's in the dark," he explained to Stefan's furrowed brows.

"Let's keep it that way till she's awake then," Stefan said.

At that moment, the double doors opened again, revealing a now conscious Jenna, walking despite the interns' insistence of her being in a wheelchair, and a sickly looking Jeremy on a gurney.

"Where's Elena? What happened? Jenna asked pointedly at Damon as she ignored the doctors at her arm.

"She's in surgery, but she's gonna be fine," Stefan answered for her. "Go get yourself checked out and stay with Jeremy. We'll be right here."

Giving Damon an angry, questioning look, Jenna went in the direction of Jeremy.

"What did you do to make her so angry with her?" Stefan asked as she turned the corner.

"Oh, I don't know. It's probably because she saw me kissing Elena on the porch," Damon said, pausing before he was going to tell Stefan it was Katherine. But he didn't get a chance to finish before Stefan was on him, punching him to the ground.

**Please note that this is three chapters all bundled up into one. The story was at least 25 chapters before and I knew more and more would be added. So I'm downsizing so the story isn't a million chapters. So note that from now up till like, 21, each chapter is times 3, hence why they are uber long. That being said, enjoy! AND review. Cheers.**


	2. Brotherly Love

Guys. Guys. Break it up. Come on. You're in a hospital for god sakes!" Matt was trying hard to pull the brothers apart, but to him, it felt like trying to part some really big super magnet: they wouldn't budge.

Stefan was the first to compose himself and realize what a scene he was making and quickly got to his feet, not bothering to look at Damon. Damon, looking annoyed ,got up, wiping the trickle of blood from his lip.

"Someone drank too much red bull this morning. You're too jumpy, Stefan. You even jump to conclusions before I'm even finished talking." Damon said, scowling at him. Lowering his voice and getting in Stefan's face, Damon continued. "If you would have let me finished, I was going to tell you that Katherine was doing what she does best: playing people. So I was actually kissing Katherine. Not Elena. Might want to keep your petty jealousy under control."

Stefan looked at Damon and actually looked embarrassed at what he had done. Everyone in the room was still sending worried looks their way. "Back to your old magazines people. Show's over," Damon said, resuming his position near the operating room. Stefan followed shortly after.

"Look, Damon…" Stefan began.

"I don't want your apologies , Stefan. I want you to just get your head in the game. We are on the same side here. We both want to protect Elena," he said with a nod to the emergency room. "That means getting rid of Katherine. So if you could just let your guard down for one minute and trust me," and at this Damon had almost a pleading look in his dark eyes "then we can end this bullshit."

Stefan didn't know what to say. He hadn't really trusted Damon in such a long time. And we wasn't sure if now was the time to do it, what with Katherine in the mix again. But looking at Damon and how he seemed to have changed—found some humanity within—Stefan made a decision. "Alright, Damon. I'll trust you, but one wrong move, and I'm done. And Bonnie would second my action in a heartbeat," Stefan added, explaining what Bonnie had told him to Damon.

"Then you have nothing to lose either way, than, do you brother?"

* * *

A few rooms down Jeremy couldn't stop shivering no matter how many blankets were over him. It didn't help him much that he was a bit wet from the blackish liquid that had seeped onto his chest after they made him ingest charcoal to make sure all the pills were gone. "Dying would have been easier, than living like this at this moment," he thought miserably as he shivered again.

"Nice to see you awake and not vomiting," Jenna said walking into the room. She looked angry and worried and disheveled..

Jeremy wa speechless. He didn't know how to explain what happened. He himself was confused. One minute he was in his bed practically dying, the next, he was passed out in the bathroom with an empty cup with what looked like blood in it; the taste of it had even lingered in his mouth. Second later, paramedics showed up and he was rushed to the hospital. "What happened?"

"What happened? What happened is that you were selfish and stupid," Jenna began.

Jeremy wanted to kick himself. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, and now all hell was going to break loose on him.

"What were you thinking Jeremy? You've lost so much and you've gained so much in the process. You moved on and you were happy. And what about us? Me and Elena love you so much. I don't even know what to tell her when she comes out of surgery."

"Wait, what?" Jeremy shot up and for the first time took in Jenna and saw her sporting a small bandage on her head. "Jenna. What happened? Is Elena ok? Are you ok?"

"Of course I'm ok," she said, dropping some of the anger out of her voice and softening up. "But Elena…she's still in surgery. They say she'll be fine, but.." and she started to choke up.

"Jenna. Why is she in surgery. I don't understand."

Sniffling, Jenna sat down. "I don't really know. I have to go ask Damon what happened. I was rushed here to get looked at, and have you looked at, and it's just a mess, and…"

"Wait, why would Damon know what happened?"

"He's the one who found us and called 911. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't come."

Jeremy thought about it and it made sense now why he was here. He looked at his wrist and noticed his bracelet was gone; the bracelet he read about in Elena's journal that would protect him from being compelled. Damon had erased his memories again.

"Jeremy," Jenna asked concerned.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about something…so what do you know? How bad is Elena?"

"All I remember is letting Elena in. She went to the kitchen and I went to the living room to sit and wait for her because I needed to talk to her about something…" She shook off the image of seeing Elena and Damon kissing and continued on. "Next thing I know, I feel a hard hit on the back of my head, and I wake up on the couch with paramedics looking me over. And all I know from them is that they got a call from Damon saying me and you were hurt, and that Elena had been hurt and that he was bringing her himself because she was worse off."

Jeremy couldn't believe this was happening. After all the horrible things he had said to Elena, and now she was in the hospital, probably scared out of her mind. He knew how much she hated hospitals ever since the car crash.

"Jer, are you gonna be ok if I leave you for a minute? I need to find out what's going on. I feel stupid not knowing anything at all." Jenna stood up and Jeremy felt bad for all the stress he was putting on her paired with what was happening now.

"Go. I'll be here. I want to know and if you talk to her," he said feeling guilty, "tell her I'm sorry."

"You can tell her yourself when she's out," Jenna said nodding her head, and with that she left the room.

Jenna still couldn't believe how all of this had happened. She couldn't even bring herself to tell Jeremy about John. She wasn't even aware if Elena even knew what had happened to him. Hell, Jenna didn't even know what had happened to John.

"I locked the front door. The back door is always locked," she thought to herself. "What the fuck happened," she groaned out, too shocked to care that she sounded like a crazy person.

She knew she was in the right place when she saw Stefan and Damon waiting outside an operating room. Before she reached them, Matt walked over to her.

"Jenna, are you ok?" Matt asked, giving her a hug.

"Yes, Matt. I'm fine. Thanks. I have to go. I have to find out about Elena."

"Of course. Go."

She continued walking toward the boys, tapping Damon on the shoulder. He turned, waiting to see what kind of reaction Jenna was going to have.

"First, I want to thank you for everything. I owe you for my family's life. For my life," she said. "But I need to know what happened."

Giving a quick glance to Stefan, Damon gave Jenna the same story he had told Matt. Jenna's face turned to horror as she heard about what happened to Elena. When she heard about what Damon saw regarding John's body, she stopped him.

"Wait, the paramedics said they went to the kitchen to go get John because you said he was dead, but all they found was blood—lots of blood—but no body. What happened to him, then?"

Stefan and Damon gave shocked glances at each other as they heard the news.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Damon finally replied, thinking about the possibilities. His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the emergence of the doctor from Elena's room.

"Are you the mother?" The doctor asked, approaching Jenna.

"No, I'm her aunt. Her legal guardian, I…"

"I'm her mother," said a voice from behind Jenna, and in unison, Jenna, Damon, and Stefan turned around, shocked to see Isobel standing there. "What's happened to my daughter?"

* * *

The doctor looked just as confused, but decided it was better not to get involved. "Well, guardian or parent, I wanted to tell you that Elena made it out of surgery and we will be moving her shortly to the ICU. She lost a lot of blood, but the damage wasn't as bad as we expected. She took a beating, but she's going to be just fine."

"Thank…Thank you doctor," responded Jenna while everyone was still in shock over Isobel's appearance, including herself. "When can we see her?"

"The anesthesia should wear off in a few hours, but you're welcome to be in the room when she gets there. Take care of yourself," he said, nodding at Jenna's bandage.

Jenna turned from the doctor to look at Isobel. "I thought you were dead? Alaric said you were murdered and now you're here? And you knew Elena was here? What the hell is…"

"I don't really have time to explain everything to you. I just came to see that Elena was alright," she said, giving a glance between Stefan and Damon.

"No. You can't just show up here with some lame excuse as that. I'm not letting you near Elena. Especially not until you explain yourself!" Jenna looked like she had about as much as she could take for the day, but she was still livid in defense of Elena.

"Listen, blondie," Isobel said stepping closer to Jenna. "Why don't you leave me to chat with these boys here and forget you even saw me," Isobel cooed, her pupils dilating.

Jenna stared at her for a moment, then got closer to her face. "I don't get dismissed like that and you don't talk to me like that, you…"

"Jenna. Enough. Let me talk to her. You've been through enough today." Stefan stepped in, seeing Isobel's face getting more hostile by the minute. Jenna was about to argue, but Stefan continued. "I promise she won't get near Elena. I'm not leaving her. I'll even call security if I have to." Isobel laughed under her breath at that comment, but it seemed to do the trick with Jenna.

"Alright, but I'm only leaving to tell Jeremy the news. When I get back, I want you gone," she said, walking away, looking over her shoulder as she went.

Just as she rounded the corner, the doors to Elena's room opened and she was wheeled out. Other than the few tubes sticking out of her arms, she looked in better shape than when she came in. There was more color to her face and her breathing looked almost back to normal.

Stefan reached out and grasped her hand real quick, just to feel her and see she was ok. It was killing him that he couldn't be with her right now. "I'll see you soon, Elena, he whispered to her as she was carted off to her room.

Damon looked like he had wanted to do or say something too, but he held back. Isobel's eyes never left Elena as she surveyed the damage done.

"She's alive, and that's enough to know," Isobel said and headed toward the elevator.

""Why are you here Isobel? Are you Katherine's bitch for life now?" Damon said, following her to the elevator.

"I'm nobody's bitch Damon. I'll leave that job to you. But I already told you, I just wanted to see that Elena…"

"Bull. Like you care about Elena. Spill." Damon said, stepping closer to her.

Sighing, Isobel glared at both of the brothers and stepped back into the elevator. "We've gone over this. I don't care about anyone other than myself in the scheme of things. I was just checking on a promise…"

Before the doors shut, Damon rushed in, followed close by Stefan. Stefan pressed the stop button on the elevator. In seconds flat, Damon had Isobel by the throat, pinning her to the wall.

"What's going on? What is the master plan in all of this? So help me, I will rip your throat out right here if I have to!" Damon snarled, squeezing tighter.

"I don't think Elena could forgive you for that. Especially now that John is dead. How would she handle her mother being dead as well?" Isobel said, hoarse as Damon's grip tightened.

"What she doesn't know, won't kill her."

"Talk," Stefan said, "And Damon, put her down. We both know that threat isn't going to work with her. And I believe there is a reason she showed up so obviously in our presence, so she's got something to say regardless."

Looking like it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do, Damon set her down, giving her the death look with his eyes.

"Now what promise were you here to check on?" Stefan asked.

"I guess you'd find out eventually, but…as you know, Katherine wanted the device to get rid of all tomb vampires in this town, and…"

"Yeah, Yeah. We've heard this part already. She wanted them dead and then she said she was pissed at John for going after me and Stefan. Let's go from there," Damon said impatiently.

"Well, I came to town shortly after everything went down to just check on things. See what kind of damage was done on either the town or the vampires. I got some news out of some citizens kind enough to indulge in some information, and waited around to talk to Katherine."

"Why would you care what the damage was?" Stefan asked.

"It's not important. There were some people I was interested in seeing what had happened," Isobel said, thinking of Alaric and John, but shrugging her shoulders as if it wasn't important. "Anyways, before any of this went down, I had Katherine promise that Elena would be safe."

"Well obviously that back-fired miserably," Damon said.

"Obviously, Damon. That's why I was in town too. I never could know when Katherine decided to keep a promise, because they don't seem to matter to her either way."

"So how did you find out about Elena, then? Were you watching her house?" Stefan asked getting angry. "If you were why didn't you help her? You had to know Katherine wasn't there for some chat."

"First off, Stefan, you know just as well I do that you have to be invited in, and I was never at her house. I didn't think Katherine was going to go near her. There was no reason. I knew she wanted to see John, but…" Isobel paused as the elevator began to beep and start moving again.

"Talk fast, Isobel," Damon said.

"Fine, spark notes version, I ended up finding Katherine and she told me that she killed John and that Elena walked in afterwards. And Katherine being Katherine, felt threatened, as I knew she would, that Elena was involved with Katherine's "boys" as she puts it. Her words not mine, stop snarling at me." Isobel said as Damon became angry. "And that, in retaliation, she gave Elena a "warning stab" but for me, she didn't kill her."

"And you're okay with that? Katherine stabbing your daughter and leaving her for dead?" Stefan asked. He wasn't really too surprised at her attitude, but he would have thought her own daughter would mean something to her.

"Like I told you. I was making sure that Elena was alive, and she is. Am I ok that Katherine stabbed her? No, but it's not my job to look after her all the time. I gave up caring a long time ago." The doors opened up to the lobby at that moment, and Isobel stepped out. "I do know that even if I did care, Katherine would snap me in half before I could bat an eye. So I lose either way. I'll see you boys around."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Damon said as she walked away.

"That Katherine's business isn't done in town, and so then, neither is mine so it seems." She rushed out the doors before she could be asked anymore questions.

"So what do you think this all means, Damon," Stefan said, sending the elevator back to Elena's floor.

"It means the bitch is back in town and she's not going to stop till she gets what she wants," Damon said, punching the wall.

* * *

Jeremy was sitting up in bed, relieved that Elena was ok. Jenna had just left the room to go to the ICU. Obviously Elena was in more dire need of help than he was at the moment. He was told that later he could go see her, but not before he had a psych consult. Punching the pillow at the thought, Jeremy felt like screaming. "This is why I wanted it to be over," he thought miserably. "I wouldn't have to deal with this stupid stuff. I could shut it out." All plans for that seemed to fly out the window as soon as he puked up the entire contents of his stomach.

He stared around the room, lost and depressed. He was trying to focus on something else, but it wasn't working. Scanning the room, he saw that there was a tray nearby with some random instruments; a puke cup; a syringe.

Something clicked in his head when he saw the syringe. "I tried to kill myself, and couldn't do it because I had to puke it out the drugs," he thought, getting hopeful, "but Damon gave me his blood to heal the damage I had done… So that means there is still vampire blood in my system…I still have a chance."

Jeremy kept this thought in mind as he reached for the syringe on the tray.

* * *

Elena opened her eyes, blinking around in confusion. It took her a minute to figure out where she was. Her heart raced a bit as she realized she was in the hospital. She tried to sit up, but a hand gently pushed her down.

"Don't try sitting up, Elena. They said you need to rest," came Jenna's voice from her side.

Turning her head, Elena saw a tired Jenna sitting by her bed with a bandage on her forehead. "Jenna? Are you ok? What happened? Where's Jeremy? We should go." She ended hectically. She was never one for hospitals, and being the patient wasn't making her feel better.

"Elena. Calm down. You're not supposed to be moving around," Jenna said, now getting worried because Elena was struggling with the IV's and attempting to get out of the bed. "You're going to be ok, ok? Breathe. I'm fine, just a bang to the head, and Jeremy puked everything out, so he's going to be fine too."

"Wait? What?" Elena said, forgetting her struggling. The last thing she knew of Jeremy was that he had the stomach flu. At least that's what Damon had told her.

"He…" Jenna sighed, "He over dosed on some painkillers at the house and nearly died if he hadn't thrown them up and….if Damon hadn't come. But he's going to be fine and he's going to get help. What do you remember, Elena?" Jenna didn't really want to focus on Jeremy and freak her out any more than she already was; she also wanted to stall her from making a bolt for the door.

Elena's eyes were darting from Jenna's to the door and back. She tried to calm herself, but the last time she was in a hospital, she was lying in a bed while she looked on helplessly as they tried without success to revive her parents. It was like she could literally see them pumping their chest from across the room right now. She closed her eyes against the image, feeling the burn of tears behind her eyelids. Talking fast, she responded to Jenna, leaving some details out.

"I don't really know a lot, Jenna. I came home and no one was around. I called up to Jeremy and was on my way up when I heard a noise in the kitchen, but…" She didn't know if she should tell her she saw John or not.

"I opened the door, walked in, and saw John on the floor," and at this she started tearing up. No matter how much she disliked him for everything he had done, he had been her family. Uncle, and then she learned, father. Jenna grabbed a tissue from the box and held it out to Elena, taking one herself.

"I went to help him, but I felt a sharp stab in my shoulder and was slammed down to the floor. I don't remember anything after that," she ended, hoping her story sounded convincing.

"Oh Elena. I'm so sorry something like this happened. And I know you're freaking out right now, but you can't leave. But I'm confused with your story," Jenna said.

Elena panicked a little more. She didn't know what Jenna knew and she didn't know what she missed either. Her worry spiked the heart monitor, causing both her and Jenna to jump.

"Oww," Elena said as her shoulder shifted at the startle.

"That's why you should lie down," Jenna said.

"No. I'm fine. What are you confused about? I'm sorry that I don't remember enough to be helpful…" Elena trailed off.

"You said you came home and no one was around…Elena, I let you in the house. I interrupted you and Damon's little make out session. Did you forget that as well, or were you hoping I wouldn't remember that?" Jenna said, looking a bit judgmental.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Elena said, trying to look as confused as she could. She knew vaguely from the conversation Damon and Katherine had in the kitchen that a kiss took place. She wasn't aware, however, that Jenna knew anything about it.

"Alright. If that's how it is, I'll let it go. Only because you're injured, though. Just please think of what you're doing Elena. I'm just so glad you're ok," Jenna said, breaking down.

"Jenna, don't cry. Listen, why don't you get some sleep. You look exhausted. Call Alaric and have him drive you home," Elena said. She really wanted her to rest, but the other part wanted her out of the room so Elena could leave without protest.

"No. I called him though, and he should be here soon. But I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I don't feel safe going home just yet. I don't even know if the police are done in the kitchen with, you know…"

Elena felt bad for not thinking of what was going on at home. "I understand. Well let's go see Jeremy, then, and see how he's doing," Elena said, sitting all the way up and starting to remove the breathing tube from under her nostrils and slowly making her way to undoing the IV.

"Elena," Jenna said, grabbing her hands, "If you don't stop trying to get out of this bed, I will call the nurse to sedate you. You could injure yourself more. So please, for me, just stay. I'll bring Jer to you. It's easier that way."

Elena closed her eyes against the dizziness that overcame her from sitting up and the nervousness she had been fighting since awaking. "Ok. I just want to make sure he's fine."

"Ok. I'll be back in bit with Jeremy then, " Jenna said heading out. "Stay," she said with a final glance her way.

In the hallway, Jenna passed Matt and Tyler.

"How's Elena? Is she gonna be alright," Matt asked, concern and exhaustion lining his face.

Smiling at Matt's concern, Jenna nodded, "She's going to be just fine. Doctors say she was lucky. I'm going to go get Jeremy to see her now." Jenna started walking away before she remembered Caroline. "I heard about Caroline, how is she doing?"

"She hasn't woken up yet, but the doctors have done everything they can. All we can do is wait and see how she is when she's up," Matt said looking downcast. Tyler looked especially distraught and guilty.

"I'm sure she'll be just fine. You know Caroline. She'll be up in no time bossing everyone around and complaining about the sheets," Jenna said giving a smile. "I'll see you around."

* * *

Damon and Stefan stepped out of the elevator. Damon was rubbing his knuckles as it was healing from the damage he did in the elevator.

"I think you hurt the elevator more than yourself," Stefan said looking at his hand.

"What a shame. Now the hospital will look like a less comfy and cozier place. Oh wait, it already is," Damon said. Stefan shook his head and continued to Elena's room.

"Hey Stefan, wait up," came Matt's voice from the waiting room. He really wanted to get to Elena, but he didn't want to blow off Matt. He knew he was worried too.

"I'll see if she's up, then," Damon said. "Have fun with Mutt."

"It's Matt," Matt said, looking a bit peeved.

"Damon…" Stefan started, but Damon was already down the hall.

Damon walked in to a surprising scene. He expected Elena to be in the bed recuperating, but instead, she was standing at the end of the bed, all wires and tubes taken out, attempting to put shoes on, and looking like she was going to pass out. Damon rushed over before she could fall.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing, Elena. You women and shoes. I mean, I know those hospital slippers are pretty fashionable, but they are not worth dying over." Damon said, supporting Elena's weight. Then he realized that her heart was beating pretty fast. "Elena?"

"I'm fine," she panted out. "I just can't be here. I can't be in a hospital. I want to leave. Can you just help me? Please?" She pleaded. He'd never seen her more panicked. If he wasn't a tougher person, he would have whisked her out in a heartbeat.

"As much as I would love to give in to your puppy dog eyes and do what you say, the answer is no. You have to rest, and I know you don't have awesome hearing like me, but your heart is beating so hard, it's almost out of your chest. Not a good thing, Elena." And with one swift motion, Damon swept Elena up and laid her back on the bed, but not without a couple of feeble swings of her arm.

She was still swinging at him when Stefan came in the room.

"What's going on?" he said, rushing to Elena's side and brushing Damon off.

"Well, we almost had a jailbreak on our hands. Elena was halfway out the door when I got here," Damon said.

"Elena, it's going to be ok. Relax," Stefan said, just glad to see Elena awake.

She stopped struggling and looking over at Stefan, tears in her eyes, started breaking down. Stefan stroked her head and gave her a kiss. "Shhh, It's ok," he told her.

Soon after, a few nurses came in alerted by the absence of her heart monitor. Elena looked at them with evil eyes as they told her she would have to be hooked up again.

"You might have to give her something," Damon whispered in one of the nurses ears and walked out of the room.

Jenna was halfway to Jeremy's room when there was a rush of movement running past her in the hallway heading in the same direction.

"Please say they aren't going to Jeremy's room," she thought, speeding her steps.

"Jenna," she heard from behind her.

"Rick. Oh thank god. I'm so sorry I bothered you. I just... I didn't know who else to call. It's just so crazy and now I don't know if there is something wrong with Jeremy and," she was going on, getting hysterical.

"Shh. Calm down. It's fine. I'm here for you, Jenna. I care about you," he said, hugging her close.

She put her head on his shoulder for just a moment to calm herself before she rushed to see what the commotion in the hallway was about. Alaric let her stay there for a minute, just holding her when he realized she was too still.

"Jenna?" He asked, moving her away to see her face, and worrying when he saw she had passed out and wasn't breathing.


	3. Breathe

"You know, that means we're even now, "Elena told Damon as he came back into the room. By now, she was heavily drugged and content to lie in the hospital room with Stefan holding her hand by the side of the bed.

"Even?" Damon said with raised brows.

"Don't forget. I saved your life that time in Georgia. So now," she said smirking, "We are even Steven."

"Wow, how many drugs did they give her Stefan," Damon said, holding back a chuckle.

"Enough to calm her down and apparently sing Britney Spears songs. You were a little too late for her last performance though, "Stefan said grinning at Elena.

"Hey, you know I could beat her any day. I even have my own head of hair," she replied, reaching up to touch her head. She took a little intake of breath at the movement. "Oww," she said half moaning, half chuckling. "I almost forgot."

"I'll have what she's having," Damon replied, taking a seat on the other side of Elena.

"What are you doing, Damon?" Stefan asked, eyeing him with annoyance.

"Kicking my feet up and relaxing, and apparently waiting for Elena to bust out in song," he said wryly, winking at Elena.

Stefan gave him the look, and he and Damon stood up.

"Where are you going?" Elena said turning serious.

"I need to talk to Damon for a minute. We'll be right outside. I promise I'll be back soon," he said, bending down to give her a kiss. She kissed back enthusiastically, forgetting Damon was in the room.

"Ahem. I'd say get a room, but you already have one. Come on Stef," Damon said, leaving the room. "Stay," he said at Elena, pointing his finger. She sighed and put her head back on the pillow.

"So what's the story, Damon? Where did you go?" Stefan asked as soon as they were out of Elena's room.

"Unfortunately, not much. I went sniffing around trying to get a lead on Katherine, or even Isobel for that matter since she's connected, but no luck. I'd ask the sheriff, but she's a little busy with Caroline and dealing with a dead mayor at the moment."

"We need to figure him out sometime too, Damon. Why was the mayor with you guys in the first place? It doesn't make sense," Stefan said speculatively. "But first things, first. We find Katherine and keep Elena out of harm's way," Stefan ended, looking determined.

"Couldn't agree with you more, brother," Damon said, looking distracted. "Well look what the cat dragged in," Damon said, peering over Stefan's shoulder.

Stefan turned around and saw Alaric looking pale.

"What is it?" Stefan didn't know how much worse things could possibly get.

"It's Jenna," Rick said visibly upset.

* * *

Jeremy was contemplating the syringe in his hand. He remembered reading somewhere about how if you inject a needle into your body with just air in the syringe, that you could cause your heart to stop because of air in the blood. Was it an embolism? He couldn't really remember, but if he was correct, then this was his chance to finish what he started. He was still considering the possibility when he saw a rush of nurses. He threw the syringe back on the tray, startled, and then relaxed when he saw them rushing to some other room down the hall.

"Real smooth, Jer," he thought out loud. But just then, he heard what sounded like Rick's voice in the hallway calling for help. "What the hell?" he thought, and got up off his cot. He stumbled a bit, but regained his balance as he stepped out in the hall and rounded the corner.

He was greeted by Rick holding an unconscious Jenna, with doctors hurriedly coming to her aid.

"Jenna. Jenna," Jeremy called rushing to the scene. "Mr. Saltzman, what happened?" he asked, panic setting in his face as he saw the Jenna wasn't breathing.

"I, I don't know. I was just holding her when she just went still and stopped breathing…"Alaric said in shock.

Jenna was ripped from his arms, put on a gurney, and was sped to the nearest room.

"We need a crash cart in here," one of the doctors yelled.

Jeremy and Alaric stood tense and anxious in the corner of the room while the doctors worked to resuscitate Jenna.

* * *

"Knock, Knock," a voice called from the door.

Elena opened her eyes when she heard Bonnie's voice from the doorway. "Bonnie," Elena said, smiling and then bursting into tears at the same time. She may have felt loopy, but seeing her best friend brought her down to reality.

Bonnie rushed over and gave Elena a one armed hug. "Elena. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" Bonnie asked, concern all over her face.

"Oh don't start that, Bonnie. Please?" Elena said, starting to laugh a bit. She was thinking back to when she was starting school again after everything with her parents and how everyone asked if she was ok. She didn't need that again. Bonnie smiled in an apologetic way and sat down.

"How did you find out I was here anyways?" Elena asked.

"Well," Bonnie said looking guilty, "I didn't know you were here. I heard about Caroline and came to the hospital to see her. She's fine. She's awake," she said because Elena looked like she was going to interrupt. "They fixed her internal injuries and she's fine. Chatty as usual," she said smiling.

"Good," Elena said, sighing out a breath of relief.

"But I came here and Matt told me if I knew what happened to you, and I came running. What did happen? Really?" she asked looking serious.

"How much do you know?" Elena asked, not really anxious to tell her story again.

"Only what Matt told me."

"Well. Long story short, Bonnie. Katherine's back."

"Crap….Tell me everything," Bonnie said.

* * *

"Clear," the doctor said, shocking Jenna's chest for the second time.

"No, no, no," Jeremy said, shouting from the corner. "You can't do this Jenna. Not you too." Jeremy couldn't help but to think of all the people he had lost. He felt cursed. She was really trying with him, and he appreciated her patience with him. It felt like bad karma that after he failed to die, she was seemingly succeeding effortlessly instead.

"Please," he said, near tears. Alaric held his shoulders looking just as upset. The doctor put the paddles to her chest a third time and got a reaction on the monitor.

"Alright, people. Let's get her out for a head CT, stat," the doctor said. Turning around, he faced Jeremy and Rick. "We're going to do some tests and see what's going on in her brain. We won't know more until then. But for now, she's stable.

With that, the doctors started wheeling Jenna out of the room and toward the elevators. Jeremy felt both a wave of relief and a wave of nauseous over what just happened. "Whoa. Easy Jeremy. Maybe you should go lay back down," Alaric said, taking his arm. "I'll make sure she's ok. You take care of you. She wouldn't like to wake up and have you hurt even worse," he said with knowing eyes.

"But…ok. But how about Elena? She doesn't know. I want to see her," Jeremy said, taking a deep breath until the nauseous passed. The charcoal they forced on him was still making his stomach uneasy.

"I'll go tell her what's going on. But you need to calm down, first. She doesn't need to see you in bad shape while hearing about Jenna. So just stay put," he said. He waited till Jeremy was back in his bed with a nurse going over his vitals to go check on Elena.

"This day sucks," he sighed as he went toward Elena's room.

* * *

"I don't know if you should tell Elena, yet," Stefan told Rick. "The only reason she's in that room right now is because they drugged her up. You give her a reason, and she's out the door. We'll tell her when we know for sure what's wrong with Jenna."

"I think Elena would want to know, Stefan" Rick said.

"Know what," Bonnie said, coming from Elena's room.

"Nothing," Stefan said, glancing from Alaric to Bonnie. "What are you doing here, Bonnie?"

"Really, Stefan?" she said, giving him a look.

"I'm sorry. Of course you'd be here." Then he turned back to Alaric. "Please. What she won't know, won't hurt her." This was the second time that night that they had to use that line.

Bonnie was looking between the two men curiously. "Stefan, what shouldn't she know?" she said, now peering into Elena's room. "Because I think Damon's telling her right now."

Sighing, Stefan looked back to Rick. "Ok. Well, head back to Jenna then. I'll still be here for Elena."

Nodding, Rick left the room in a hurry to get back to Jenna, hoping she was alright.

"What do you mean her heart stopped?" Elena said, getting flustered. He own heart sped up in the response to the news Damon was telling her. "What does that mean? Is she going to be ok? I should have known something was wrong. I feel stupid for not even asking how she felt. She only had a huge bandage on her head…"Elena added looking upset.

"Easy, Elena," Damon said trying to calm her, "If you would have let me finish, I was going to tell you that they got her heart beating merry happy again and they are going to do a CT scan to see what exactly happened. She'll be back to giving me the evil eye and cozying up to Rick in no time." He smiled in hopes that she would settle down. It didn't.

"I have to go see her. I'm done just lying here while people I care about are in hospital rooms," Elena said, wincing as she sat up and turned to put her feet on the ground.

"You were so much more fun when you were high on meds," he said as he watched her get up. "Are we really going to go through this again, Elena," Damon said, shaking his head and going to go stop her before a rush of movement beat him to her.

"That's why I didn't want to tell her yet, Damon," Stefan said, angrily forcing Elena back on the bed.

"You weren't going to tell me?" Elena said breathing heavily from the effort of moving around and being forced back onto the bed.

"I didn't want to upset you with the news especially since we didn't know what we were dealing with yet," he said, glaring at Damon.

"I still think it's better she knows if her Aunt it going to kick the bucket or not, Stefan. She wouldn't like it if she found out too late that she could have seen her or at least been given the 411 on… Elena?"

At that point, Elena started hyperventilating and crying. "This is all my fault," she said between breaths, "I'm so stupid. I should have done something to protect her…" she cried, her pulse rate alerting the monitor.

"Elena. Shhh, shhh, shhh. It's not your fault. It couldn't be your fault, ok?" came Bonnie's voice from behind Stefan. "Breath." But Elena wouldn't listen.

"Elena, if you don't calm down, you're going to do some real damage, and if it kills you, do you really want to turn? You know what would happen?" Damon said looking serious and concerned at the same time. "I mean we could always use the company…." Stefan was livid when he figured out that Damon had given Elena his blood. Bonnie looked disgusted and angry at the same time.

Stefan was about to say more, but he noticed this idea seemed to calm her, if only for her own sake. And for the sake of all of them, a nurse came in the room to check out what had happened, shooing the three into the hallway.

"Well, that was fun," Damon said sarcastically, giving a grim smile. But his smile was interrupted by a piercing pain in his head. Clutching his head, his fingers gripping his hair, he looked up to see Bonnie glaring at him.

"I warned you, Damon," Bonnie said staring him down as the pain intensified in his head.

* * *

"Bonnie, Bonnie. That's enough. Stop. He didn't hurt anyone," Stefan said reluctantly. He was angry at Damon for a lot of things lately, but he couldn't fault him for giving Elena his blood when it probably saved her. "In fact….He saved Elena's life at the time."

Damon's hands dropped to his side as the pain disappeared. Cracking his neck from side to side, he looked over at Bonnie and glared.

"Next time you want to witch-out, Bonnie. Don't," Damon said getting in her face. He had meant his apology earlier that day, but his patience could only wear so far.

"I figured it was more effective than just the slap in the face I had in mind. What's wrong with you?" Bonnie said, moving closer, not afraid of his reaction. "We weren't going to tell Elena and you rush in to tell her," she said poking a finger at his chest. " And you only now decided to let everyone know you gave her your blood. So if something terrible would have happened…" she couldn't even end her sentence because she was so mad.

"She was going to die, Bonnie," Damon said with more emotion in his voice, "She was bleeding out fast. If I would have taken her to the hospital like that, she would be deader than me and Stefan. So take your power trip somewhere else."

She stepped away and controlled herself. "I've let you get away with only so much because of Elena. So don't push it," she said walking away. "I'm going to check on Caroline," Bonnie told Stefan.

"Oh, and p.s. Damon, you're not Stefan. So stop acting like Elena is yours," she said with a nod and walked away.

"Witches are so touchy," Damon said, still glaring as she disappeared down the hall.

"She's right though, Damon. I don't think we need to have another conversation again, do we."

"No. As much as I love out little chats, Stefan, I have places to be, people to eat, bitches to find," he said smirking.

Stefan sighed. "Just be careful."

"Whatever," Damon said. And with a final look at Elena, he left.

* * *

"Stefan, stop fussing over me. I'm fine. I can do it, "Elena said as Stefan was rushing to help her with her books. "The doctor said if I don't use my shoulder it'll get all stiff. So carrying and stretching and stuff is good. Really."

It had been almost a week since they released Elena and she was starting to feel better. She didn't really want to go back to school, but she grinned and bared it. Caroline was back in action too, making it a point to tell teachers that if she fell behind on homework, it was because of her accident.

"Alright," Stefan conceded, "But I'm still going to carry your backpack later." He smiled at her and, began to open the history class door to let them out.

"Agreed," she said. She was about to leave when a voice stopped her.

"Elena. Any news on Jenna?" Alaric asked, walking toward her and Stefan.

"It's the same," Elena said frowning. "They are keeping her in a medically induced coma until the swelling goes down in her brain. They said that she had a concussion and that since it wasn't looked at fast enough, it progressed and she actually threw a clot, causing her heart to stop. I don't know, I'm not a doctor or anything. I don't even know if I got it right…" she ended looking frustrated.

"It's ok. You did fine explaining it, Elena," Alaric said. "So how long till they know anything?"

"Well, luckily they said it shouldn't be long because she's healing pretty well. Then they will take her out of the coma I guess," she said sighing. "I just wish she would have taken the time to get looked at instead of fussing over me and Jeremy."

"Speaking of, how is he doing," Alaric asked curiously.

"He's been quiet, but for the most part, I think he's going to be ok. We're talking again, at least. I think Jenna almost dying and me being hurt really brought him down to reality or something," Elena said thinking back to Jeremy's behavior. He was told to talk to a shrink a few times a month for a while, but he seemed to do so without complaint. She didn't know how much help he could get considering what he could and couldn't talk about, but at least he was still alive.

"Thanks for the update, Elena. I'll be dropping by the hospital later," Alaric said, closing his bag.

"I'll see you there then," Elena nodded and went toward the door.

"Hey Stefan, can I talk to you in private for a quick minute."

"Yes… But Elena may as well stay. She'll just hear about what you had to say later anyway," Stefan said after Elena gave him knowing eyes.

"Fair enough….Any word on Katherine? Or…Isobel?" he ended, looking tense.

Elena remembered being shocked when Stefan told her of Isobel's appearance in the hospital. She hadn't seen or heard of her since, but she wasn't surprised. She wouldn't forget what Isobel had told her at the Grill the night she met her: "_Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me, I don't have any_."

"Nothing on Katherine. She seems to be lying low. Damon might have gotten a lead on Isobel, but he's not sure yet. We're doing our best to make sure everyone's safe," Stefan said.

"I guess that's the best we can hope for at this point," Alaric thought thinking of Jenna.

* * *

Jeremy didn't know what was worse, his decision to stay human or his decision to see the therapist. Well, it wasn't so much a decision as a must to see the therapist, but it still, in his opinion, sucked to go through the motions.

Seeing Jenna almost die made him realize how important family was overall. If she had died after Jeremy had made his choice, Elena would be left alone blaming herself for everyone. And as much as Jeremy hated living life feeling so much pain, he didn't want Elena to have to live the same way too. He also conceded that Anna wouldn't have wanted him to live his life an unfeeling shell of a person. At least that's what he told himself to counteract the 'what if' feelings that were racing through his mind.

Sighing, he left the doctor's office after a stubborn session where he skirted around a lot of the problems that had occurred in his life. They would probably find him insane if he told them how he was depressed about vampires. He was halfway to his car when he spotted Elena leaning against the door.

"What, are you checking up on me? Making sure I'm seeing the shrink like a good boy," he said a bit annoyed.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest. "I wasn't checking up on you. I was just making sure you were ok after the appointment," Elena said, hanging her head. "I'm sorry I bothered you." She started walking away.

"Elena. Wait," Jeremy said, catching her arm, "I'm sorry. The appointment just made me so tense and mad, and I'm just still going through a lot….I didn't mean to snap."

Elena thought about it and wrapped her arm around Jeremy. "It's ok. I understand."

"Do you need a ride or did you drive here?" he said, looking around for her car. "Did Stefan drop you off?"

"Yeah. I told him about your appointment and he offered to take me. So here I am."

Jeremy unlocked the door and Elena moved around to get to the passenger side.

"Elena…I'm sorry," Jeremy started.

"I know. You don't have to say it again, Jeremy," Elena said, buckling up.

"No. I mean, I'm sorry about what I was going to do….you know…turn," he added at the confused look on Elena's face. "I wasn't thinking. It was just that I lost Anna and I was already feeling crappy, and I just wanted it all to go away. I didn't think of how I would hurt you."

Elena seemed at a loss for words.

Jeremy seemed to decide whether to tell Elena the next thing he was meaning to say, because he wasn't even sure if he meant it just yet or not.

"What?" Elena said, noticing his little internal struggle going on, shown in his facial expression.

"Well. I guess the next time you see Damon, just thank him for me," Jeremy said reluctantly, putting the car into drive.

"Damon? I'm sure he already knows how grateful both you and I are for getting us help," Elena started.

"It's more than that. I thought he would have told you," he said, looking awkward.

"Tell me what?"

"Well, if he hadn't shown up when he did, I would definitely be a vampire right now…He found me right after I took the blood and pills and he compelled me to puke it all out and apparently, drink a cup of his blood to fix whatever damage I had done…." He said, looking embarrassed. "So, I guess I owe him one."

"You mean you didn't have any vervain?" Elena asked.

"He must have taken it off. It was in that bracelet you gave me, right?

"Yeah," she said, looking out the window, looking distant.

"What? What is it? Are you mad?" Jeremy asked, looking concerned.

Then Elena laughed and looked back to Jeremy. "No, I'm not mad. I just…I just didn't think it would be this easy…" she ended, smiling at him.

"Think what would be easy? Us getting along again," Jeremy asked with a slow smile.

"No," she said, her dark eyes dilating, "Getting to you so easily…so, unprotected. Now pull over," she said with command in her voice, boring her eyes into Jeremy. Silently and obediently, Jeremy pulled the car to the side of the road.

"Now, you're going to listen to me very carefully. Understand?" Katherine began, staring at Jeremy.

"I understand."

* * *

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're stupid," Damon said, standing inside an old evicted house. "And though you are stupid, I know that you wanted me to find you on purpose."

Isobel sat down on the leather couch and crossed her legs. She had found a perfect house outside of town that still had furniture left; a bonus she was luxuriating in until Damon showed up. "I had to finish my meal way too early to deal with you, Damon. The least you could do is not insult my intelligence."

Damon rolled his eyes and decided to take a seat across from her, but not before snatching up a half empty bottle of whiskey she had sitting on the counter. "Well, at least you have good taste in liquor," he said, taking a swig.

"So let me get this straight, and please stop me if I miss anything. You left town all 'you'll never see me again, I'm just a messenger, blah blah blah," Damon started, settling into the loveseat, " and then you come back to town because you sort of care what happens to your 'daughter', maybe even your ex perhaps?" Damon said, tilting his head at her.

"That was put rather elegantly. But don't confuse caring with usefulness, Damon. I gave up actually feeling anything a while ago," she said narrowing her eyes at him.

"What use could you possibly have for either Elena or Rick—the superman-wannabe history teacher?" he said, containing his urge to snap Isobel's neck for even thinking Elena could be used.

"That's for me to know, Damon. I have my reasons, just as you have yours for doing whatever you do."

"And what is it that you think I'm doing exactly," he replied, taking another swig from the bottle.

"Looks like you are going through a lot of trouble on Elena's part to keep her safe…watch over her family…win her over. I'm not naïve, Damon. You do things hoping for something in return," she said, taking the bottle from his hands and taking a sip. "I don't know what your master plan is, just as you don't know mine."

That was the second time in a month that he was told he didn't do anything unless he expected something in return. He didn't know whether to be annoyed by the fact that that's what people thought of him or not.

"Well, that usually is the case," he conceded. "But this time, I'm involved because when Katherine is in the picture, it's not just who is useful to you anymore. What does Katherine want?"

Isobel sat there smirking at him for a moment before looking at him. "Honestly, I have no idea what Katherine's up to. Why don't you ask her yourself? Oh wait, you can't find her. So you listen to me Damon Salvatore, "she said standing up and going to the door. "Your threats to kill me don't scare me. They are empty and we both know it. I have information you want, and like it or not, I am Elena's mother." She said, smirking and opening the door, "So why don't you go find someone else to bother. Like Katherine. And when you find her, send her my way."

Damon got up and finished the bottle of whiskey in one gulp. "Don't think we're done, Isobel," he said breaking the empty bottle. In one quick moment, he rushed to Isobel and plunged the shattered bottle into Isobel's stomach. She cried out in pain as Damon twisted it deeper.

"And don't forget that my threats, unlike this bottle, are never empty. I will kill you as soon the moment you become useless to me. So how about you spill something other than your guts, Isobel, starting with your reason for being here," he said snarling as she stared on in fear.

* * *

"Jeremy should be here any minute," Elena told Jenna. "And when he is, you should wake up and yell at him for being late," she told her, holding her hand and imagining Jenna's response.

Elena sighed and looked at the door for the millionth time. She had been waiting for Jeremy for over an hour now and she was starting to get worried. She was reaching for her cell phone to call him when the door finally opened and Jeremy came in.

"Finally. I thought you'd never get here. How was your appointment?" Elena asked.

"It went fine. Told him it was normal teenage angst stuff. Couldn't really got into details, you know…But it was only the first visit so it's not like they're going to cure me in one shot," Jeremy said, taking a seat next to Elena.

"You were talking for a while, though. You were supposed to show up like an hour ago."

"Oh," Jeremy said looking over to Jenna with a distant look, "I needed to just got for a drive and clear my head."

"Alright. I won't push it," Elena said, taking his hand. "Umm, so how was school?"

"Really, Elena? We're going to talk about school?" Jeremy said raising his brows.

"Sorry…."Elena said. "I just don't want to bring up anything that you don't want to talk about or anything."

They sat there for a minute in silence before Elena started up again. "Did you hear about the memorial service they're going to put on for Uncle John?"

"I think I heard something about it. How's that gonna work, exactly, considering we don't even know what happened to his body?" Jeremy said. "You are sure he was dead, right?"

Elena shivered at the memory of his body on the ground. "Yeah. I'm sure. Damon even checked as well."

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh. I didn't mean for you to bring up something like that."

"It happened and we're moving on, Jer," Elena said, squeezing Jena's hand.

"How is Jenna anyway? I didn't ask earlier because I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear bad news. Did they say anything?" Jeremy asked.

"The only good news they gave me was that they were taking her out of the coma sometime tonight so that tomorrow she will be out of it. Something about the swelling having gone down enough…I just hope she's ok when she wakes up," Elena said closing her eyes.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Jeremy said, standing up.

"Where are you going," Elena asked, surprised by his rush.

"I have some homework to catch up on and….I have to buy a notebook. My doctor wants me to start some lame journal so I can write about how I'm feeling," he said, rolling his eyes. "No offense."

"I'll go with. I have stuff to get done too. I'll see you later, Jenna," Elena said, bending down to give her a peck on the cheek.

"See you at home later tonight?" Elena asked Jeremy as they left the hospital.

"Yeah," Jeremy said trailing off as he saw Alaric coming toward the building. "I'll see you home a bit later. I have to talk to Mr. Saltzman, first."

* * *

"You were gone for a while. Am I correct in thinking that you found something?" Stefan asked as he saw Damon come into the living room.

"Yeah. You could call her that," Damon said, heading over to the liquor bottles and pouring himself a glass.

Stefan noticed some blood on his shirt, and sat up. "Katherine?"

"Funny. I wouldn't call her a thing. More like a….never mind. I'm not in the mood to share with you my sarcastic bantering. But no, I found Isobel," he said plopping down on the couch next to Stefan.

"And what, you beat her up? You have blood on your shirt, "Stefan said, gesturing at the splash of red just above his waistline.

"IF you call shoving a broken bottle in her gut beating her up, then yes," he said smiling.

Stefan's eyebrows shot up at that. "Is she…."

"I didn't kill her. I was just putting her in her place, that's all. Settle down tiger, or should I say rabbit? Or squirrel? Whatever it is you had for dinner."

"Anything useful come out of it?" Stefan asked, eager for information.

"You'd think so, right? Well, she confessed her love for long walks on the beach, moonlit boat rides, and a heavy admiration of AB positive blood…."

"Damon. Seriously. What did she say," Stefan said, not in the mood to play games.

"Grouchy. OK. Well she said that she was here for Elena because she decided deep, deep down that she actually cares for her; like her motherly side was coming through. I don't know how much motherly stuff came out of her gut, but there may be some truth to her caring about Elena. However, she made it clear that she had some sort of use for Elena or something. I don't quite know, but I don't like it," Damon said scowling and taking a sip of his drink.

"That's it?" Stefan asked. "I don't buy that Elena's the only reason for her to be here."

"Well, the other part I got out of her pertained to her seeing Rick and asking him some important questions, but she wouldn't indulge what that was… As far as I can tell, she's here on her own agenda. Not Katherine's." Damon said frustrated.

"For now, at least," Stefan replied. "We'll just have to keep a close eye on her then regardless. For the sake of Elena and the town."

"Sounds like a plan…..Hey, where is Elena anyway?" Damon asked.

"She was going to the hospital to visit Jenna, and then she's going to swing by here," Stefan asked, eyeing Damon. "I don't want you to tell Elena…"

"Why do you insist on keeping things like this from her, Stefan? You already know she gets angry when you try to treat her like a child," Damon said to him with disdain.

"I was going to say that I didn't think you should tell her about you attacking Isobel, not the whole incident. There are just some things that she shouldn't know unless it's important, or it won't hurt her," Stefan answered back angrily. "It's called being considerate. You should try it sometime."

"Unless of course you think Elena will be alright with you semi-gutting her birth mother, then be my guest. She doesn't need to be treated like a child after all?" Stefan said getting up as heard a car roll into the driveway.

Damon rolled his eyes and reclined in the chair thinking about the last thing Isobel had said to him.

"_I know you say Elena's not like Katherine, but come on now. She's stringing both of you along like little puppies. Don't forget whose blood she has running through her veins, Damon. When it comes down to a final choice, who do you think she'll choose? Or can she?"_

Shaking his head, Damon was surprised that Stefan hadn't walked in with Elena yet.

He walked to the front door to see not Elena, but the Sheriff.

"Sheriff Forbes. To what do we owe the pleasure," Damon said, folding his arms over the bloodstain on his shirt.

"Hello Damon. I was telling your brother that we were having animal attacks in town again," she said looking uncomfortable.

"I thought John took care of that with his device," Damon said, knowing full well it was probably Isobel or Katherine.

"Well, the thing is, it's different this time. It's like it's an actual animal attack…" she ended, looking flustered.

"Don't you have like, forest rangers for that or something?" Damon asked, not getting where she was going with it.

"What's different about it then?" Stefan asked, seeing that she had more to say.

"I don't want to sound crazy, but I knew you'd understand something weird because of everything that's happened, but the wounds are large like a person was clawing at the body. And the bite mark, was enormous for a bear or wolf," she said looking at both of them.

"I'm sorry. I sound stupid. I shouldn't have bothered you," she said. "It's just…"

"What? What are you thinking?" Stefan said, slowly putting some pieces together.

"Well in the founders' journals, they made mention of the same kind of animal attacks, but it wasn't attributed to vampires…..they said….well they said it was werewolves."

This brought Damon to attention. "Now that's an interesting theory….Where did you read about said werewolves."

Sherriff Forbes shifted uncomfortably, reluctant to tell them. "It's probably not even true. I mean, werewolves? It was probably some wild animal in the day and they let their imagination run…"

"Where did you read it, sheriff," Damon asked getting more curious.

She sighed and shook her head. "In the Lockwood journal."


	4. Anger Issues

"So what do you think, Stefan? Could we have werewolves in our midst?" Damon asked after the sheriff had gone. But not before promising they would keep a look out and do research of their own.

"Maybe. I don't know. Its sounds like a plausible explanation. Didn't we have similar attacks in our time? " Stefan said speculatively.

"I don't know, but it doesn't sound fun to have over sized dogs running around town…I wonder," Damon said putting things together.

"What?"

"The mayor?" Damon asked. "He was thrown into the fire with the vamps and he wasn't affected by the vervain. And since werewolves are closer to dogs, they can probably hear that high pitched frequency we did. Not to mention the sheriff found information about it in the Lockwood journal."

"I hate to say this, but I think you're right, Damon," Stefan said staring into the woods. "That also means that we know who the werewolf is right now, then. Tyler."

"Who passed out while driving because he heard a noise," Damon ended. "What, I was budding in on other people's conversations. I do that. Don't act surprised at my overly observant tendencies," Damon said in response to Stefan's surprised face.

"I was just surprised you remembered information that didn't have to do with you," Stefan said heading toward the library. "I guess we do more research like we told Sheriff Forbes."

"Or we just kill Tyler and head him off at the pass, so to speak," Damon said.

"Damon, he's still human. You can't just off him. We'll look into it more. Maybe there is even a reversal process or, maybe it's not even Tyler running through town," Stefan said thinking hard.

"What other lead do we have? I don't see anyone else to fit the bill, unless you think Katherine grew monster sized claws and didn't care about draining the blood first," Damon ended, walking upstairs.

"I don't know, but what I vaguely know about werewolves is that they aren't usually loners," Stefan said starting to rifle through books. "So if it is Tyler, he's not alone."

"Let's hope you are wrong then, oh wise one," Damon said, disappearing into his room.

"Let's hope," he thought aloud as he began reading on old folklore.

* * *

Elena was going to stop home before she went to Stefan's, but she wasn't feeling up to it. Knowing that Katherine was on the loose had her on edge. She even had Stefan spend the night to keep a look out—even if it was more his idea than hers.

"I don't want you pulling an Edward Cullen or something and stalk me in my sleep," she said teasing him one night he was staying in her room.

"Who?" he asked curiously.

Elena smiled at the memory and then thought of something that could be helpful. Elena pulled out her cell phone and brought up Bonnie's number.

"Hey Elena. What's up?" Bonnie answered sounding like she was in a good mood.

"Hey Bonnie. How are you doing?" Elena started, not wanting to just jump into her question.

"Fine….but something tells me something's on your mind. It's not boy trouble is it? Cause if it is I…"Bonnie began. Elena could sense that she would have gone on for a while if she didn't head her off soon.

"No. No. No. Nothing like that. Thanks though Bonnie," she said with a chuckle. "It's just. Well I have a question and it regards your, um, specialty." Elena didn't like the idea of discussing such thing on the phone, but this was important.

"Uh huh. You mean my bewitching personality," Bonnie said and Elena could almost imagine Bonnie winking at her. "What is it?"

Sighing, Elena began her question. "Ok. I know you're new and everything and I don't know how much you really know, but I was wondering if you knew of any spells to uninvite unwanted visitors from your home?"

"Oh. You're talking about Katherine getting into your house," Bonnie said catching on. "I don't know if there is an individual spell to keep a certain person, um, vampire, out of your house. Maybe there is a general one or something. Let me see what's in Gran's books and I'll get back to you." Bonnie said, already sounding like she was on the move to wherever the book was.

"Thanks Bonnie. This means a lot to me and my family," Elena said with real gratitude in her voice.

"Geez, no pressure or anything, Elena," Bonnie said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry. I've just been stressed lately." Elena started pulling into the driveway of the boardinghouse. "Just keep me posted if you find anything. I believe in you, Bonnie."

There was a pause on the other end. "Thanks, Elena. Really."

"Talk to you later," she said hanging up as she heard Bonnie's goodbye.

* * *

"So are you and Tyler ok now? Cause I totally do not like seeing you guys fight all the time. It's depressing," Caroline told Matt as they sat eating lunch at the Mystic Grill.

"Yeah. We're cool," Matt replied. "But he's been really distant because of his father I tried to be there for him, but he was just standoffish. I understand though."

"I wish he'd just open up and let people help him or something. It's not healthy to just pen up all your feelings. You might, like, blow up or have some sort of panic attack and crash a car…" Caroline ended, looking down at her food.

"Caroline!" Matt said in surprise.

"I'm just saying. And I don't want to mess up your friendship and all, but what if there was a real reason we crashed. What if it was like drugs or something because he was stressed or…" she trailed off.

"He's off the drugs, Caroline. From what I know, he only ever smoked pot anyway. Besides, I think his father would have beat him if he found out. Either way, it was an accident. He didn't mean for anything to happen," Matt said looking at Caroline, who wouldn't meet his eye.

Cupping her chin so she was looking at him, Matt looked at her seriously. "I'm sorry you got hurt, Caroline. And as much as I was angry at Tyler, it was an accident. No drugs."

Caroline grabbed the hand from her chin and held it. "Well if you believe him, then it's good enough for me. Like I said, I'd rather have you friends with me being a little peevy, than have two best friends hate each other."

"And speaking of," Caroline said with a nod toward the front as Tyler walked through the door, looking a bit of a mess.

"I'm gonna go talk to him," Matt said, getting up and heading toward Tyler.

"Hey man. How's it going," he said when he reached Tyler near the bar.

"I've been better. Can't sleep much. I've had some freaky dreams. But I think I'm going to be okay," Tyler said.

Matt noticed the dark circles under Tyler's eyes and how his skin seemed to be stretched too tight over his body, as if he were wearing thin.

"You look like you could use a good night's sleep. And food or something, man. You look like you lost weight. Are you talking to anyone?" Matt said, sitting next to him on the stool.

Tyler ordered a coke and looked back to Matt. "What is this? The inquisition?...I don't know. I just haven't been hungry lately. It's weird. It's like I'm full, but not. I'm just…you know what, I don't need to be telling you my problems," Tyler ended angrily walking away from the bar.

"I didn't mean to make you mad. I was just trying to…"

"Trying to what? Make me feel better? First I crash the car and almost kill Caroline and you. Then I find out my dad dies. My mom is drinking herself into a stupor as we speak. You want me to feel better," Tyler said, his face getting red as he got in Matt's face. "You back the hell off me." And with a forceful push, Tyler moved past Matt and out the door.

Caroline had gotten up in response and rushed over to Matt. "What the hell was that all about?"

Matt was looking just as confused as Caroline. "I don't know…."

* * *

Tyler was walking down the street when Damon appeared out of nowhere.

"Shit man. You scared me. What are you doing?" Tyler asked suspicious of Damon. "Aren't you Stefan's brother?"

"Yeah. Listen, I have a few questions to ask you," Damon began, analyzing Tyler's ragged appearance.

"Not you too. I've had like half the town asking about the mayor and," but Tyler was stopped by a shove from Damon. "What the hell…"

"I have a few questions, and you're gonna answer them. Got it?" Damon said, boring his dark eyes into Tyler's.

"What are you gonna do," Tyler replied back, unaffected by Damon's gaze, "Kill me?"

"If you insist," Damon said, dragging him by the cuff to a nearby alley.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'll answer. Just calm the fuck down," Tyler said, getting louder.

"That's more like it. Now, I'm gonna ask you this and ask you this once. Now, I know your dad was a werewolf, and hence you are. So my question is, are you running with anyone else? Terrorizing the town? Not a good idea," Damon said, waiting for Tyler's response.

"What, are you freaking crazy," Tyler said, starting to struggle in Damon's hold. "There's no such thing as werewolves. If you haven't noticed, I'm not a wolf! And how dare you insult my father like that!"

"Well, right now you're not wolfing out or anything. I think that's a full moon kind of event. Maybe. I don't really know. So of course you're not a wolf now," Damon mused. "And as for your father, I know for a fact he was. Didn't you notice he had some anger issues?"

Tyler brushed off that bit of information and aimed a kick at Damon.

"Bad idea," Damon said, punching Tyler in the face.

"Did he ever howl at the moon?" Damon said, chuckling at the image it brought up. "Anyways," he continued as Tyler seemed to grow angrier. "I already told you I'm not asking again, so why don't you answer my question?"

But Tyler wasn't listening anymore as his eyes shone an orange color and his teeth took on a sharp, glistening look.

"I guess we're getting somewhere," Damon said smirking.

So what do you think, Stefan? Could we have werewolves in our midst?" Damon asked after the sheriff had gone. But not before promising they would keep a look out and do research of their own.

"Maybe. I don't know. Its sounds like a plausible explanation. Didn't we have similar attacks in our time? " Stefan said speculatively.

"I don't know, but it doesn't sound fun to have over sized dogs running around town…I wonder," Damon said putting things together.

"What?"

"The mayor?" Damon asked. "He was thrown into the fire with the vamps and he wasn't affected by the vervain. And since werewolves are closer to dogs, they can probably hear that high pitched frequency we did. Not to mention the sheriff found information about it in the Lockwood journal."

"I hate to say this, but I think you're right, Damon," Stefan said staring into the woods. "That also means that we know who the werewolf is right now, then. Tyler."

"Who passed out while driving because he heard a noise," Damon ended. "What, I was budding in on other people's conversations. I do that. Don't act surprised at my overly observant tendencies," Damon said in response to Stefan's surprised face.

"I was just surprised you remembered information that didn't have to do with you," Stefan said heading toward the library. "I guess we do more research like we told Sheriff Forbes."

"Or we just kill Tyler and head him off at the pass, so to speak," Damon said.

"Damon, he's still human. You can't just off him. We'll look into it more. Maybe there is even a reversal process or, maybe it's not even Tyler running through town," Stefan said thinking hard.

"What other lead do we have? I don't see anyone else to fit the bill, unless you think Katherine grew monster sized claws and didn't care about draining the blood first," Damon ended, walking upstairs.

"I don't know, but what I vaguely know about werewolves is that they aren't usually loners," Stefan said starting to rifle through books. "So if it is Tyler, he's not alone."

"Let's hope you are wrong then, oh wise one," Damon said, disappearing into his room.

"Let's hope," he thought aloud as he began reading on old folklore.

* * *

Elena was going to stop home before she went to Stefan's, but she wasn't feeling up to it. Knowing that Katherine was on the loose had her on edge. She even had Stefan spend the night to keep a look out—even if it was more his idea than hers.

"I don't want you pulling an Edward Cullen or something and stalk me in my sleep," she said teasing him one night he was staying in her room.

"Who?" he asked curiously.

Elena smiled at the memory and then thought of something that could be helpful. Elena pulled out her cell phone and brought up Bonnie's number.

"Hey Elena. What's up?" Bonnie answered sounding like she was in a good mood.

"Hey Bonnie. How are you doing?" Elena started, not wanting to just jump into her question.

"Fine….but something tells me something's on your mind. It's not boy trouble is it? Cause if it is I…"Bonnie began. Elena could sense that she would have gone on for a while if she didn't head her off soon.

"No. No. No. Nothing like that. Thanks though Bonnie," she said with a chuckle. "It's just. Well I have a question and it regards your, um, specialty." Elena didn't like the idea of discussing such thing on the phone, but this was important.

"Uh huh. You mean my bewitching personality," Bonnie said and Elena could almost imagine Bonnie winking at her. "What is it?"

Sighing, Elena began her question. "Ok. I know you're new and everything and I don't know how much you really know, but I was wondering if you knew of any spells to uninvite unwanted visitors from your home?"

"Oh. You're talking about Katherine getting into your house," Bonnie said catching on. "I don't know if there is an individual spell to keep a certain person, um, vampire, out of your house. Maybe there is a general one or something. Let me see what's in Gran's books and I'll get back to you." Bonnie said, already sounding like she was on the move to wherever the book was.

"Thanks Bonnie. This means a lot to me and my family," Elena said with real gratitude in her voice.

"Geez, no pressure or anything, Elena," Bonnie said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry. I've just been stressed lately." Elena started pulling into the driveway of the boardinghouse. "Just keep me posted if you find anything. I believe in you, Bonnie."

There was a pause on the other end. "Thanks, Elena. Really."

"Talk to you later," she said hanging up as she heard Bonnie's goodbye.

* * *

"So are you and Tyler ok now? Cause I totally do not like seeing you guys fight all the time. It's depressing," Caroline told Matt as they sat eating lunch at the Mystic Grill.

"Yeah. We're cool," Matt replied. "But he's been really distant because of his father I tried to be there for him, but he was just standoffish. I understand though."

"I wish he'd just open up and let people help him or something. It's not healthy to just pen up all your feelings. You might, like, blow up or have some sort of panic attack and crash a car…" Caroline ended, looking down at her food.

"Caroline!" Matt said in surprise.

"I'm just saying. And I don't want to mess up your friendship and all, but what if there was a real reason we crashed. What if it was like drugs or something because he was stressed or…" she trailed off.

"He's off the drugs, Caroline. From what I know, he only ever smoked pot anyway. Besides, I think his father would have beat him if he found out. Either way, it was an accident. He didn't mean for anything to happen," Matt said looking at Caroline, who wouldn't meet his eye.

Cupping her chin so she was looking at him, Matt looked at her seriously. "I'm sorry you got hurt, Caroline. And as much as I was angry at Tyler, it was an accident. No drugs."

Caroline grabbed the hand from her chin and held it. "Well if you believe him, then it's good enough for me. Like I said, I'd rather have you friends with me being a little peevy, than have two best friends hate each other."

"And speaking of," Caroline said with a nod toward the front as Tyler walked through the door, looking a bit of a mess.

"I'm gonna go talk to him," Matt said, getting up and heading toward Tyler.

"Hey man. How's it going," he said when he reached Tyler near the bar.

"I've been better. Can't sleep much. I've had some freaky dreams. But I think I'm going to be okay," Tyler said.

Matt noticed the dark circles under Tyler's eyes and how his skin seemed to be stretched too tight over his body, as if he were wearing thin.

"You look like you could use a good night's sleep. And food or something, man. You look like you lost weight. Are you talking to anyone?" Matt said, sitting next to him on the stool.

Tyler ordered a coke and looked back to Matt. "What is this? The inquisition?...I don't know. I just haven't been hungry lately. It's weird. It's like I'm full, but not. I'm just…you know what, I don't need to be telling you my problems," Tyler ended angrily walking away from the bar.

"I didn't mean to make you mad. I was just trying to…"

"Trying to what? Make me feel better? First I crash the car and almost kill Caroline and you. Then I find out my dad dies. My mom is drinking herself into a stupor as we speak. You want me to feel better," Tyler said, his face getting red as he got in Matt's face. "You back the hell off me." And with a forceful push, Tyler moved past Matt and out the door.

Caroline had gotten up in response and rushed over to Matt. "What the hell was that all about?"

Matt was looking just as confused as Caroline. "I don't know…."

* * *

Tyler was walking down the street when Damon appeared out of nowhere.

"Shit man. You scared me. What are you doing?" Tyler asked suspicious of Damon. "Aren't you Stefan's brother?"

"Yeah. Listen, I have a few questions to ask you," Damon began, analyzing Tyler's ragged appearance.

"Not you too. I've had like half the town asking about the mayor and," but Tyler was stopped by a shove from Damon. "What the hell…"

"I have a few questions, and you're gonna answer them. Got it?" Damon said, boring his dark eyes into Tyler's.

"What are you gonna do," Tyler replied back, unaffected by Damon's gaze, "Kill me?"

"If you insist," Damon said, dragging him by the cuff to a nearby alley.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'll answer. Just calm the fuck down," Tyler said, getting louder.

"That's more like it. Now, I'm gonna ask you this and ask you this once. Now, I know your dad was a werewolf, and hence you are. So my question is, are you running with anyone else? Terrorizing the town? Not a good idea," Damon said, waiting for Tyler's response.

"What, are you freaking crazy," Tyler said, starting to struggle in Damon's hold. "There's no such thing as werewolves. If you haven't noticed, I'm not a wolf! And how dare you insult my father like that!"

"Well, right now you're not wolfing out or anything. I think that's a full moon kind of event. Maybe. I don't really know. So of course you're not a wolf now," Damon mused. "And as for your father, I know for a fact he was. Didn't you notice he had some anger issues?"

Tyler brushed off that bit of information and aimed a kick at Damon.

"Bad idea," Damon said, punching Tyler in the face.

"Did he ever howl at the moon?" Damon said, chuckling at the image it brought up. "Anyways," he continued as Tyler seemed to grow angrier. "I already told you I'm not asking again, so why don't you answer my question?"

But Tyler wasn't listening anymore as his eyes shone an orange color and his teeth took on a sharp, glistening look.

"I guess we're getting somewhere," Damon said smirking.

* * *

"I guess it's not just a full moon kind of deal for you guys after all," Damon was saying to a now snarling werewolf. "Alright. I'll leave you alone for now. Run along." "I'll just follow and see where you run to," Damon thought to himself, impressed with his own brilliance for enticing Tyler and coming up with the plan in seconds flat.

But before Damon could congratulate himself too much, Tyler pounced at him and nearly nicked him with his extremely long, large claws. "Easy tiger," Damon said, retreating. He didn't want to injure Tyler or he wouldn't be able to follow him.

Suddenly laughter drifted over from down the street from where they stood in the alleyway.

Right away, Tyler's head snapped to the direction of the voice and he snarled.

"Bad dog. Sit," Damon said, throwing something at Tyler to get his attention back. Tyler snarled louder and leapt toward Damon, who took off down the alley as Tyler closely pursued him.

* * *

Elena walked into the boarding house to find Stefan rifling through old library books.

"Hey," she said, going over to him and giving him a kiss. "What are you doing? Getting caught up on some century old homework assignment?"

"Not quite," Stefan said, smiling at her. "Just looking up some things about the town. Trying to keep the peace."

"Oh yeah? Speaking of… I had an idea that I ran by with Bonnie that if there is a solution to, would be really, really helpful," Elena said, sitting down on the chair near Stefan.

"And what would that be? I'm not sure it's good to involve Bonnie with.." but Elena cut him off.

"I know she messed up last time. Messed up big. But the important thing is that she realized how wrong she was and ended up helping you guys get out. Don't forget that," Elena said sternly, poking a finger at his chest.

"If you trust her, then I will trust her then," Stefan conceded. "So what was your idea?"

"Well, I was thinking that she could possibly see if there is a spell in one of her books that somehow uninvited a vampire from a house. That way, we won't have to worry about Katherine popping up whenever she feels like," Elena said, looking hopeful.

"That's actually a really good idea, Elena. I hope she can find something."

"Me too…So what is it exactly that you are looking up that will protect the town? Elena asked, now looking at the books that Stefan had pulled out.

"Well, don't get too worried, but there may be something more dangerous than just vampires in Mystic Falls," Stefan said. Then he told Elena everything he knew. She gasped when Stefan told her that Tyler could be one.

"That's terrible. Are you sure?" Elena said, looking worried. "I could only imagine what he could be going through."

"Positive. I'm sorry. I'm trying to find out what I can about them, but I'm a bit limited," Stefan said, looking frustrated.

Elena sat there thinking a while when a thought occurred to her. "Stefan. Why don't we ask Alaric? I mean he studied up on vampires. Who's to say he doesn't know about werewolves, too?"

"As much as I hate to have him involved again, I think you may be right," Stefan said smiling at her. "What would I do without you?"

"Oh I don't know. Maybe go bowling with Damon and talk about good times," Elena said laughing and leaning in for a kiss.

"Bowling's not really my thing," Damon said, interrupting Elena and Stefan. "Now, you'll never guess who I just ran in to. I'll give you one guess. It might like beggin strips."

"You found a werewolf? Already and it's not the full moon? How?" Stefan asked.

"I went to go interview Tyler, who by the way, as a werewolf is now immune to compulsion, and he wolfed out on me in the alley," Damon said. "He's got quite the temper."

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" Elena asked, looking anxious. "I mean I know he's not the nicest person in the world, but he's still a human."

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. Not like I'd get hurt anyways. But no. I didn't hurt him. Maybe wounded his pride, but that's it."

"I'm assuming you followed him to see if he went to any other werewolves?" Stefan asked.

"No. I fled in terror of his massive teeth. I followed him, but he seemed pretty surprised that he actually transformed like that. He got to the edge of the woods, transformed back, and pretty much curled into a ball and had a mini panic attack before he did the walk of shame home," Damon said, smirking at the memory.

"Poor Tyler," Elena said with concern, "I guess it's safe to say that there probably aren't any other werewolves out there. I mean, he didn't know he was one to begin with right?"

"And he didn't know his father was one either," Damon added.

"So I guess the next step is to go talk to Alaric and see what he knows about werewolves," Elena said,

"Unless he tells us that wishes do come true, there is no reversing a werewolf or something, Elena," Damon said crossing his arms.

"And you know that for a fact because, what, you are an expert now because you ran into one werewolf?" Elena replied.

"Snarky today, huh. Fine. Ask Rick and he'll probably tell you the same thing. You don't need to know a lot to know that sometimes, there is no going back." Damon said. "Alright. I did my part. I'm going back to the Grill and get my drink like I wanted."

"Wait, Damon," Elena said getting up. "I want to talk to you for a minute. Can you wait?"

Stefan looked at her with raised brows and Damon turned around deciding what he wanted to do.

"If you insist, Damon said, coming back into the room and plopping down in one of the leather chairs. I'm all yours," he said with a wink to Stefan.

Elena gave a look to Stefan, and he got up. "You know what, I'll go and see Alaric myself and see what he has to say."

"I was going to go with you," Elena started.

"No it's fine. I'll be back soon, and hopefully with some answers," Stefan said, reaching down and giving Elena a kiss.

Stefan gave Damon one final look and left.

"So you got me where you want me. What can I do for you Elena?" Damon said smirking.

Stefan drove a little faster than he usually did as he was leaving, but he felt a bit on edge. He didn't like the idea of leaving the two of them together, but it was what she wanted. "I trust her, though," Stefan thought, "It's Damon I don't trust with her."

As he was driving, he realized he didn't really know where he was going. He'd only seen Rick at school or at Elena's. He also didn't have his number. "Great Stefan," he thought to himself angrily. But with one final thought, he decided that maybe he could be at the Grill. Just in case, Stefan texted Damon to see if he had his number.

As he walked into the Grill, he looked around, disappointed to find that he wasn't there. He was heading to the bar for a drink when he saw Matt wave him over.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Matt asked, giving Stefan a friendly hand bump.

"It's going good. How about you? And how about you, Caroline?"Stefan asked nodding at her.

"Well I got some wicked little scars, but I'm pretty good," Caroline said before Matt could answer, "but Matt here almost got some to match mine."

"Caroline, you're over-reacting," Matt said, looking at her sternly.

"Why? What happened? Stefan asked.

Before Matt could reply, Caroline started in. "Well Matt went over to see how Tyler was doing since his dad died. And let me tell you, he's looking awful these days. Well, he is," she said with a look to Matt. "Anyways they were talking and before I know it, Tyler is shoving him halfway across the room."

"That's a little over the top. He gave me a shove. He didn't want to talk about anything and I was pushing him a bit, so he got angry. It happens. Especially when you lose someone," Matt said getting defensive.

"He still tried to hurt you," Caroline ended, taking a sip of her soda.

"Has he been acting weird for a while?" Stefan asked, curious to get more information.

"He's always been a bit of an angry person, so I don't know. He's missed some school and he didn't come to the game a few nights ago, but that's it," Matt said. "

"I guess he just needs some time to mourn," Stefan said, making note to look up when the next full moon was going to be.

"Yeah. I guess. Hey, how's Elena doing anyway? Any word on her Aunt," Matt asked with concern.

"Elena's fine. Her arm's healing up so she'll be good. And Jenna's still being watched at the hospital. Elena sounds hopeful," Stefan ended, looking up as he saw Alaric walk through the doors.

"I hope she's ok," Caroline chimed in. "I mean, Jenna's the only family besides Jeremy now that Elena has. I'm happy Elena and Jeremy are at least ok."

Matt seemed like he was about to reply, when Stefan cut them off. "Will you excuse me? I have to ask Mr. Saltzman a question."

"No problem. I'll see you around, " Matt said. "We were about to leave anyway."

"Yeah, My mom's put me on the craziest curfew ever since the accident. "It's not safe around here anymore, blah blah blah, she says. See you around," Caroline said.

Stefan approached Alaric just as he was downing a tumbler of whiskey.

He sat down on a stool next to him and was about to start talking, when Alaric turned over to him with a weird look on his face, which had a bruise forming on the jawline.

"What happened?" Stefan asked, thinking quickly to either Isobel or Tyler.

"It was Jeremy," Alaric said sounding shocked and confused. "Jeremy."

* * *

Elena got up from where she was sitting and moved closer to Damon, standing over him while he sat in the chair.

"So I wanted to talk to you because we haven't really talked since everything that's happened," Elena began. "And I want to say how thankful I really am for everything you did. I owe you my family's life. And mine."

"Aww. Don't get all cheesy on me, now," Damon said smirking.

"No I really mean it, Damon. You didn't have to do what you did. You could have just called 911 or just taken me to the hospital, but you did more and I'll never forget that."

"Well like you said, we're even now," Damon said standing up and looking at her. "But what did you really expect me to do, Elena? Let Katherine kill you? That's not going to happen," he said, more seriously.

Elena looked up into his eyes, surprised at the genuine concern in his voice. "There's one more thing, though," she said, somewhat hesitant.

"Isn't there always?" Damon said smirking and waiting for her response.

"I think you're being a bit weird around me because of the kiss you shared with Katherine and…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. How did you arrive at that?" Damon said with raised brows, thrown off by the direction of the conversation.

"It's just, I mean, this is the first time we've kind of just talked in a while and I think it's because you feel awkward or something. And I wanted to tell you that it's fine. You fell for her trap and it happens. Women can be quite…."

"Cruel" Damon said, tilting his head.

"Manipulative too," Elena agreed reluctantly, "but the important thing is that you realized that it wasn't me because you know we're just friends. You promised," she said at the look on his face. "So can we go back to just bantering and being cool again?"

Damon smiled at this, and brought his hand up to stroke her cheek. " Damon. I'm being serious," she said, swatting it away.

"I didn't think I was being a weirdo as you put it…"

"I didn't call you…."

"But, fine. We will be bff's again forever and ever," he said with a fake high squealed voice.

Elena swatted at his arm at the joke. "Thanks Damon. I like being your friend. And you haven't made me regret it. So keep it up," she said smiling.

"Oh come here you," Damon said, going in for a hug.

Elena laughed. "Ok, ok, that's enough of that. Wait, is that my phone?" she said as she heard a ringing from across the room.

Elena walked over to the table and saw the name on the caller id. She answered it on the third ring. "Jer? Hey. Is everything ok?

"Yeah. I just need to talk to you. Can you come home?" he asked.

"Are you sure you're ok, you sound funny?" she asked concerned, as Damon walked over, listening to the conversation.

"No. Everything's fine. I just have something really important to tell you…"

"Alright. I'll be home soon," she told Jeremy.

"Thanks, Elena." And with that, he hung up.

"Can you tell Stefan I had to leave, but I'll come back here later," she said, getting her purse and heading for the door.  
"What, am I your messenger boy now? Downgrade," Damon said jokingly.

"Well just if you see him before I do, ok?" she said, "Besides, there's nothing wrong with being a messenger boy," she said with a wink, and left the house.

* * *

"What do you mean Jeremy did it?" Stefan asked Alaric while his glass was getting another refill.

"It was all just really weird," Alaric began. "We were taking a walk outside the hospital. I was on my way to visit Jenna, and he and Elena were leaving. He had asked to talk to me, so of course, I agreed."

"Where did you go?"

"We just walked to one of the back parking lots. He said it was something important that couldn't be talked about in public," Alaric said. "So when we got back there, he started grilling me on things I didn't even think he knew about. Like if I knew a lot about vampires or witches, and if I'd heard from Isobel or anything. It was just weird the way he was going about it."

"That is odd, but it's probably related to the fact that Anna had died and he was going to try to become a vampire. He's still confused," Stefan continued, but Alaric cut him off.

"That wasn't even the strangest part of it. The thing is, all of a sudden, he started asking me about my ring and how I got it. I told him about how Isobel gave it to me, and then he got really angry," Alaric said, thinking back to Jeremy's face.

"He started accusing me saying how it was bullshit and that Isobel stole it from John who stole it from his dad and he kept going on about it. He then got in my face and demanded that I give him the ring…."

"What? Why would he do that? I didn't even think he knew about the ring. Elena said she hid her journal and there was nothing about his ring in there," Stefan said.

"I don't know his reasoning, but I told him he couldn't have it and that I was sorry. I told him to go home because he was too riled up, and that's when he punched me. He was trying to take the ring from me physically, but I fought him off. It was then that I noticed something really off about him," Alaric said, taking a gulp from his glass.

"What?" Stefan said, confused at this whole event.

"From the first time we started talking I noticed it and thought I was just being weird, but I noticed his eyes looked off. Like glazed and distant, or something like…like he…"

"Like he was being compelled," Stefan finished getting angry. "It has to be Katherine. She got to him somehow. I thought he had vervain from Elena…"

"That's just it, I don't' think he did until I gave him some…." Alaric started. "Once I realized what was going on, I had him distracted enough to reach in my bag and inject him with vervain."

"How did he react to that?" Stefan said deep in thought.

"He looked shocked, but somewhat unaffected. He took it then to run away. I don't know where, though," Alaric ended.

"It will probably take an hour or so until the effects of the vervain reverse anything in his system, but it will help," Stefan said, standing up. "We have to find him, though, before he tries anything else."

Alaric took one more swig of his drink and stood up. "Well, if what you say is true and the vervain didn't do the job right away, then I guess we have either a manhunt or a vampire chase on our hands."

On his way out, Stefan took out his cell to make a call, wondering if Elena had heard from her brother.

* * *

Damon watched Elena reverse down the driveway, still thinking about what she said to him. He hadn't realized that he was being weird around her. He must have been thinking of that kiss with Katherine a little more than he thought. The idea that Elena still wanted him around made him feel relatively better, but the whole Katherine around was really giving him a buzz-kill.

"Let's see what the brother is up to," he said aloud, grabbing his phone and seeing he had a text from Stefan about wanting a phone number.

He called Stefan but was greeted by the automated voicemail. He either shut his phone off or he was on the phone. When the beep sounded at the end, Damon left a message: "Stefan. Two things, Apparently I'm a messenger boy for Elena today so, I have a message, which you can call me for. I'm not wasting my time on talking to your voicemail, which has an awful greeting by the way, and two, any information from Rick about Fido."

He shut his phone and walked over to the door to get his jacket. He was going to the Grill where he had planned to go all along. If anyone wanted him, they could try his phone. He wasn't up to looking for people.

* * *

Elena parked the car in the garage and walked into the house. "Jeremy?" She called out when she felt like the house was too quite. She gave herself the chills just then when she thought of the last time she came home to a house this eerie. "You can't be afraid of an empty house all the time, Elena," she told herself, "just like you couldn't be afraid of cars forever."

"Jer," she started, when he came into the living room.

"Hey. Are you ok? You look spooked or something?" Jeremy said, sitting down on the couch.

"I'm fine. I should be asking you the same thing…" Elena said, walking over and sitting down next to him.

"You haven't talked to Mr. Saltzman today, have you?" Jeremy started.

"No. The last time I saw him was when he was about to visit Jenna. Why?" Elena asked.

"Just wondering. Wanted to know if he got any new information from the hospital…"Jeremy said, trailing off.

"So what is it you really want to talk about, then? I know it's not about Mr. Saltzman. I'm here for you. You can tell me anything, Jeremy," Elena said, taking his hand.

"It's just….it's been really stressful lately, and confusing, and I just wanted to let you know that I'm sticking around. Family is really important, and I want to keep it that way," Jeremy said,

"Of course. I'm really happy to hear that you're working through it, Jeremy," she said, reaching over to give him a hug.

"It's just that, well…" he said, starting to sound strange to Elena.

"What is it Jeremy?"

"The Salvatore's aren't yours to include in your own family. And you need to recognize that, "he said straightening up and getting out of Elena's hug.

"What! "she said, startled, as she stared at him. "Why are you talking like this? "

"Because you should understand that you can't take what doesn't belong to you," he said with a smile as he reached out with his hand, grabbed her by the neck, and smashed her head onto the table.


	5. Compulsion

Jeremy looked down and made sure Elena was unconscious. A small trickle of blood came from under her head. Reaching down, he yanked the necklace from her neck and threw it in his pocket. With a glazed look in his eye, Jeremy walked toward the kitchen to get his phone, when he heard Elena's go off. He walked over to where she laid on the floor and grabbed her phone. The caller id said Stefan. He threw it back down on the floor and continued to his phone.

He scrolled through his contacts until he found what he was looking for, and pushed call. While he was waiting for the rings, he suddenly felt light headed, and gripped the counter for support.

"Is it done? Did you get it? Did you take care of her?" Katherine said on the other line.

But Jeremy wasn't listening. Instead, he shook his head trying to rid himself of the dizziness and then, it was like, to him, he was waking up from some bizarre dream. "What the hell just happened?" he thought to himself.

"Is it done?" he heard the voice say on his phone.

The vervain had finally come in to affect and he remembered everything that had happened. To him, it was like he had no control over what he was doing, but he could see what he was doing. It was torture. Not wanting to cause more damage, Jeremy did some quick thinking.

"No. It is not yet done," Jeremy replied, trying to stay calm and sound uncaring, "I am waiting for Elena to come home."

"Then why are you bothering me? came Katherine's angry voice.

"To let you know that phase 2 will soon be underway," Jeremy said, anxious to be done with the conversation.

There was a pause from the other end. "You're not lying to me are you?" Katherine's voice took on an authoritative, commanding voice that Jeremy now recognized as compulsion, but was unaffected by it this time.

"No," he said with as little emotion as he could.

"Mess this up and I end your life, and turn your Aunt into dinner, got it?" Katherine said angrily.

"Yes," Jeremy said, his body trembling.

Satisfied, Katherine hung up, and Jeremy closed the phone and ran to see what he had done to Elena in the living room.

* * *

As Stefan finished leaving his second message, he noticed he had a voicemail. Hoping it was Elena, he listened to it only to hear Damon. With mention of Elena, Stefan dialed Damon and heard him pick up.

"So what news did you get out of the ole history teacher," Damon said.

"Forget about that," Stefan said hurriedly. "Where's Elena? I've been trying her phone but I can't get in contact with her."

"Ah. That pertains to the message Elena wanted me to give you. She said to tell you she will come back to the boarding house later tonight. Jeremy called her and asked to talk to her, so she went home," Damon said. "So no worries. No hanky panky went on. I know you were probably worrying…" but Stefan cut him off.

"She went home?" Stefan said with concern, "Alaric, drive faster. He's home," Damon heard Stefan say in the background.

"What's going on Stefan?" Damon said seriously, "Why is Jeremy a problem for her? At least I'm assuming that's the he you're talking about. I mean you didn't lead a werewolf there or something did you?"

"Listen. Jeremy is under compulsion, we think from Katherine, and he tried to attack Alaric. He fought him off and injected him with vervain. But it won't clear everything out of his system right away and we don't know what Jeremy is capable of," Stefan ended.

"So should we really be worried that he'd go after her too?" Damon asked, changing directions and heading toward Elena's house.

"At this point, knowing Katherine, we should be," Stefan said. "We're almost there. We're probably 10 minutes away. I want to keep the line clear so if Elena calls, so I will call you later," and he hung up.

Damon tried to shrug off the worry he felt and quickened his pace, hoping that he wouldn't run into a scene similar to that first night Katherine came to town. "That little bitch," he muttered under his breath."

* * *

"Oh my god. Elena. Elena? Can you her me? Wake up. Please wake up," Jeremy said kneeling by her body. She had been laying there unconscious for 10 minutes now and he didn't know what he should do. He tried moving her as little as possible just in case he did any major damage, but he was worried about the small pool of blood that had accumulated under her head. He had hit in heard in such a way to nick the edge of the wooden coffee table, causing the blow to the back that was bleeding out.

"Elena. I'm so sorry, I'm going to fix this," Jeremy said, standing up and rushing to the kitchen. Grabbing a dish towel, he ran back to her and placed the rag against the back of her head, trying to apply pressure.

He looked down at the blood on his hands and almost started to break down. "I'm going to call for help, Elena." He didn't know how he would explain what happened, but he knew that she wasn't waking up yet and she needed help.

He turned around to grab his phone and was startled to see Elena standing there in the living room, only he knew it wasn't Elena; and she was glaring at him with deep hatred. Jeremy got over his surprise quickly as she walked over to him.

"I was suspicious of you over the phone," Katherine started, glancing over to where Elena was on the floor, "but obviously, I was mistaken for here she is like I wanted." Looking her over, she noticed the necklace was missing.

"I assume the necklace is in your pocket," she said with a nod to his pants, "I want you to take the leaves out of it and give it to me."

Jeremy made the decision to play along if not just for his life, but for Elena's. He didn't want to let on that he was immune to her at the moment. Reaching in his pocket, he obediently took out the necklace and removed the vervain from inside. When he was done, he reached over and placed it in her hand.

"That makes my job a lot easier," she said smirking. "This must be weird for you, huh? Seeing what could be Elena's twin….I must admit it's a little odd for me too, but I'll get over it soon enough, "she said with a glance toward Elena.

Jeremy just stood there unsure of what he should be doing or if he should respond.

"Now all I need is Alaric's ring and this will be over for you," she said, holding her hand out to him.

Jeremy decided he had to answer. Being as calm as he could, he started to speak. "I wasn't able to get it. He fought me off and I couldn't get the ring."

"You didn't get the ring?" she said, her veins popping out as she got angrier. "You weren't able to fight him long enough to just take it?"

"No. And I didn't want to make him suspicious of me, either," Jeremy added, hoping he was convincing.

She stood thinking for a bit before making up her mind. "Fine. I will just have to find another way to obtain it. This isn't over for you yet," she said, getting in his face and staring at him. "You will forget what you did here tonight. I will find you when the time is right. Understand?"

"I understand," Jeremy said nodding.

"Now go upstairs in your room and don't come out till morning," she said continuing his gaze.

Now Jeremy was stuck. There was no way he was going to leave Elena with Katherine, but if he didn't go, she would know he was faking and kill them both. Making a decision, he nodded his head and started for the stairs, trying to think up a plan as he went.

Before he got to the stairs, though, he heard Elena's phone go off again. He froze waiting to see what would happen.

"Elena's phone," Katherine answered in a cool voice.

* * *

"Katherine?" Damon asked, surprised and now, worried for Elena's life. "What are you doing? Where's Elena?"

"Well, nice to hear from you too, Damon. I'm just going on where I left off, you know, unfinished business."

"I swear to god this time I will rip your heart out when I get to you," Damon started, furious. He was almost to Elena's house. He could only hope Stefan was going to be there any second. So for now, he was stalling for time, hoping she was still there.

"Ouch," she said sarcastically. "We both know you wouldn't do that to me. I just find it really amusing that she has both Salvatore's eating out of the palm of her hand….it must run in the blood," she said with smugness.

There was a pause on her end and then she began again. "You know what Damon? It's been such a long time since we just talked…I have a proposition for you."

"It's been a long time because you made it so. I don't' make deals with lying little…"

"Easy," she said cutting him off. "Hear me out. You come to the place I tell you to and meet up to just talk and, catch up on old times…..and I'll leave Elena's house, and leave her alone….at least, for now," she finished.

Damon slowed, thinking about the deal. He didn't trust Katherine once ounce. He didn't know whether to believe she would leave Elena alive. "Who's to say you don't snap Elena's neck before you leave?"

"Well," she said, thinking about it, "You have my word…but I have a better idea." "Jeremy," he heard her call with command. A minute later, he heard her talking to Jeremy.

"Jeremy here will stay on the line with you and tell you that Elena's alive. Even put the phone up to her mouth to show you she's breathing. Will that suffice?"

Damon still didn't like it, but he had to trust that the vervain had worked on Jeremy and that Stefan was almost there.

"Where do we meet?" he said, sighing in frustration.

* * *

Stefan rushed up the front steps followed shortly by Alaric. He didn't bother knocking and just forced the front door open. "Elena?" he called out.

"In here," Jeremy called from the living room.

"Stefan's here," he heard Jeremy say as he entered the room. He noticed that Jeremy was on the cell phone…and he was hovering over an unconscious Elena.

"What did you do?" Stefan asked worried and angry.

Jeremy handed the phone over to Stefan and sat on the couch. Before Stefan took the phone, he reached down to Elena to feel her pulse and make sure she was ok. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he felt a strong pulse.

Still kneeling by Elena, he put the phone to his ear. "Who is this?" he asked.

"Is Elena alright?" he heard Damon ask.

Stefan closed his eyes, relieved to hear that it was Damon. "Her pulse is strong. She's been knocked out, but I think she's fine. Where are you? What are you doing?"

"Keeping my end of the bargain," Damon answered.

"What are you going to do?" Stefan asked hurriedly, but Damon hung up the phone. Alaric stood by Jeremy asking about what happened.

"It was weird and it's a long story, but it was like I couldn't control myself and I was told to knock Elena out and then call when I was done, and…"

"Call who?" Stefan asked, knowing before he answered who it was.

"Katherine….So I was in the middle of calling her when something just fell into place. I could control what I was doing and remember in bits what I had done. I didn't mean to hurt her. I couldn't…." Jeremy said, getting upset.

"It's not your fault," Alaric said, cutting him off. "You were under compulsion. The important thing is that you're fine now and that we make sure Elena is ok as well," he said glancing at Stefan.

"Elena? Elena. Open your eyes. Come on," Stefan pleaded, shaking her shoulder a tiny bit.

"We have to take her to the hospital," Alaric said after a minute. "They'll check her out. It's not good for her to be unconscious for…." But at that moment, Elena gave a little groan and started opening her eyes.

"Owww," she said, finally opening her eyes. She then opened her eyes wide and looked around in alarm, attempting to sit up.

"Don't get up just yet, Elena," Stefan said, placing a hand on her arm.

"Wait. Jeremy, where's Jeremy? I think he's under compulsion or something, we have to find him…" she said, shrugging Stefan's hand off and sitting up slowly.

"I'm over here," Jeremy said coming into view. "And I'm so, so sorry Elena. I didn't mean any of it…and how did you know?" he ended, sounding confused.

Elena didn't answer right away. She had one hand on the floor keeping her sitting up, and the other on her face. Stefan leaned into her trying to see if he could help. Gently, he decided to lift her up off the floor and place her in a chair so that she didn't have to support her weight. She groaned a bit at the movement, but was now free to rest her head back against the chair.

"Just a minute," she said, "And don't panic or anything over me. I just got a bit dizzy," she said, noting their faces. "I could tell by the way you were talking at the end and then right before you….well. You know, and it's not your fault anyways," Elena said at the guilt that was lining Jeremy's face. "But I looked down for a second and realized you weren't wearing the bracelet I gave you, and I kind of put it together a little too late."

"Are we correct in assuming it was Katherine?" Alaric asked Jeremy.

"Yes. It was her. It's so eerie how they look alike. I didn't realize it when she first approached me. But I didn't really know there was a vampire out there with Elena's face either," Jeremy said pointedly.

"Sorry about that one," Elena said, looking at him sincerely. "From now on, I'm going to try to keep you in the loop. I thought keeping you out would protect you, but I was wrong."

Jeremy was about to respond, but Stefan began talking. "What all do you remember, Jeremy?"

Jeremy sat for a minute trying to think over anything that went on. "I don't know a lot, really. It's like bits and pieces came back to me out of nowhere and I was aware of myself again…but I can only really remember as far back as this afternoon….when I went after Alaric…." He said looking downcast. "God, I have so much apologizing to do today…."

"You couldn't control it, Jeremy. Don't blame yourself. The important thing is that everyone is ok," Stefan said, trying to make him feel better, "Whatever you can remember will be helpful, so go on. Please."

Jeremy sighed and closed his eyes thinking of the flashes if images. "I remember Katherine's voice in my head as I saw Rick….she wanted me to get his ring from him by any means…I don't know why though. She didn't give an explanation. She just said it was vital to get the ring. But I couldn't get it and then Rick jabbed me with a needle and I ran away."

"That would be the vervain," Alaric said, sitting down on the couch.

"Oh. So after that, I was just almost zombie like I guess and went home. I think I was thinking about if Elena was home, and I heard that voice in my head again, telling me to get her here and….knock her out….take her necklace…and make a phone call."

Stefan's head snapped up at the mention of the phone call. "Wait, she wanted you to call her?"

"Yeah…"Jeremy said thinking. "She said to call her when I finished everything and she would come by and….take them off my hands…." He said, looking away.

"Well, it's a good thing you came to before you could call her," Elena said, looking more alert and smiling at Jeremy.

"Well….not exactly," he said, looking around the room.

* * *

Tyler sat alone in his room staring blankly at the notebook in front of him. "How did they expect him to do homework considering his father just died," he thought to himself. "I should get a season pass off…."

Slamming it shut, he got up angrily and headed toward his door when he noticed his reflection in the mirror. He walked closer to it and took a look at himself. His skin was looking a bit pale and his eyes resembled that of a raccoon. He shook his head at his appearance and continued to leave his room and head to the kitchen for something to eat.

"How's the homework?" came his mother's drunken slur as he past the living room.

"Just fine," he answered angrily, and headed into the kitchen. He was so angry he was practically trembling. His mom had been drunk for over a week now, and she didn't show signs of stopping. He'd never seen her like this. She had been uncaring and sloppy, and just unbearable to be around.

He calmed himself and headed for the fridge. He had been hungrier than usual lately and he always seemed to be hunting around for things to eat. Spying some hamburger patties, he took them out of the fridge and got a frying pan out. He opened the package and was about to take out the patty to put in the pan when the smell hit him. The smell of raw meat and blood entered his nostrils and he felt the strangest feeling to just eat it right then and there. He thought it would be gross, but he shrugged his shoulders and took a bite; and then another. Before he knew it, he finished off the whole 12 pack of patties.

"What the hell?" he said aloud as he realized he had just down that much raw meat in a blink of an eye. He closed his eyes trying to think. "I'm going crazy," he thought to himself. "My dad dies, and I snap, which doesn't make since cause my dad was kind of a douchebag…"

He threw the pan angrily on the floor and went to the sink to wash his hands. Deep down he knew why he had eaten like he did; why he was off lately. He remembered what happened when he ran into Damon, and the horribly painful transformation he endured. But after that, it was a blur of memories, followed by another painful transformation where he took off to go home.

"Shit," he said, slamming the water off. "How did this happen? Why?"

"What are you going on about in here?" his mother said stumbling in.

"Nothing," Tyler mumbled under his breath. "Go back to your gin and tonic. That's all you seem to care about these days anyway.

She narrowed her eyes at him and walked over, putting a finger to his chest. "You listen here. When you've lost someone you've loved for as long as I have, then you talk to me about caring about certain things. ….I have every right to drink. I'll stop when I want to," she said, slurring her words.

"Yeah, right," he said, getting angry. "That's what dad said with his idea of watching over the town and all that. I'll step down next year. No next year….and look where it got him. Dead. He was an ass and that's how he will be remembered."

She slapped him hard across the face. "How dare you! He was nothing but a great man. It's not his fault you turned out to be a disappointment…."

But Tyler wasn't listening anymore after that. He started shaking all over and before he knew it, a growl escaped his mouth, from lips that were now curling back against the teeth that were sharpening and elongating right in front of his eyes.

"Tyler? What's wrong with your face?" his mom said, backing away. "Tyler?"

His growling grew louder until with a sound that was half ripping and half breaking of bones, he stood there on all fours snarling at his mother. Without a second thought, he leaped.

* * *

"I don't even know why we're here," Caroline complained as they walked up the drive to Tyler's house. "He clearly does not want to be around people right now. He's totally going to flip his shit when he answers the door."

"Caroline. Weren't you the one to tell me that you didn't like us fighting? Well, I'm making sure we're cool. If he doesn't' want us here, then we can go, ok?" Matt said, chastising Caroline.

"I hate it when you use my own words as a defense…" she said pouting at him. "But fine. If he even gives you an angry glance, though, we're leaving. I don't want to have to take you to a hospital because he's decided to become the hulk or something."

"Fine," Matt said, smiling and giving her a kiss.

He was ringing the bell when he heard a scream come from the kitchen.

"What the….was the Tyler's mom," Caroline asked with surprise.

Matt tried the front door, but it was locked. "I'm going to go around the back and try back there. I want you to go in the car and wait for me, ok?"

"You're joking, right? Caroline said.

"I don't know what's going on in there, but I don't want you hurt. For once, Caroline, just listen," he said running off to the back of the house.

Caroline sighed, but was half relieved to get to safety. "Should I call 911 or something?" she said talking to herself as she jogged to Matt's car.

She was halfway to the car when she heard a loud noise behind her. Swallowing hard, she turned around to see who it was. A scream caught in her throat as she saw it wasn't a who as much as an it. A wolf, "on steroids" she thought, was stalking toward her, growling.

"Oh my god," she said, breathing heavily, but not daring to move. "Umm. Nice doggie?"

"Caroline!" a voice yelled from Tyler's backyard. Matt was running behind with what looked like a frying pan.

"Matt," she yelled scared. "What do I do? Do I run for the car or stay put?" she said, her eyes never leaving the beast that was snarling in front of her.

Making a decision, Matt started making noises to bring attention to him. The beast turned around in the direction of the loud noises and started making his way back. Caroline took the opportunity to run for the car. Before she could open the car door, she heard Matt yell.

Turning to see what had happened, she came face to face with the werewolf, who was on her with outstretched claws. Caroline screamed.

* * *

"So Katherine actually came over here even after you played along on the phone?" Elena asked Jeremy in disbelief. "I can't believe you pulled it off, by the way, Jer. That must have been hard."

Jeremy nodded his head. "I didn't do well enough, though, because the reason she came over was because she didn't believe me. I think that if I hadn't knocked you out by the time she got here, she would have known. But you were the proof..." he ended, averting his gaze.

"Did she tell you anything about what she was up?" Stefan asked, pacing the room, and glancing at his phone to see if he had any messages from Damon.

"No. She wanted me to just go upstairs and forget everything. Oh and...she has your necklace. Sorry. She wanted me to remove the leaves and hand it over along with Alaric's ring, but I never got that," Jeremy said. He was about to explain why he didn't just keep the necklace, but Alaric cut him off.

"Why did she want my ring anyway? She's immortal. She doesn't need protection."

"That's what I would like to know," Stefan said, stopping his pacing. "Also. She would have John's ring to use to her purpose...it's not making any sense."

"She didn't tell me anything, and if she did, maybe I don't remember," Jeremy said. "After that all went down, Elena's phone rang and she answered it. Later I found out it was Damon, but she was talking and then put me on and told me to keep talking to Damon until he was satisfied that Elena was alright," he said, looking over at Elena, who was rubbing her head. "I think I heard something about her wanting to meet with Damon, though."

"What?" Elena said, "She wanted to talk to Damon? Why didn't he just come here or something?"

"Something about making a deal to meet on her terms or something. I was halfway up the stairs so I couldn't catch it all. I think it was something she decided last minute," he said.

Elena looked away, pondering what it all could mean. Stefan sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

"Elena. I'm so sorry I didn't do enough to make sure you and your brother were safe," Stefan began. "I'm going to figure things out. But I have to find Damon. We have a better chance against Katherine together."

"I don't like it, Stefan. I'm coming with you to find him," Elena said getting up. She had to put a hand on the chair to steady herself.

"Elena. You're not going anywhere," Stefan said, "I'm not going to get involved unless necessary. I just want to make sure Damon's judgment isn't...clouded."

"I think you and Jeremy should stay over at my place for the night," Alaric chimed in. "No bad vamps have been invited into my house, so it's the safest," he said at the weird looks from Elena and Jeremy."I don't know why I didn't suggest that in the first place."

"That sounds like a good plan," Stefan said before Elena could complain. "Pack a bag and go with him. Please Elena. I promise I will be back in no time. Jeremy, make sure she doesn't try anything stupid."

Jeremy nodded. "I can do that. Come on," he said, holding out his hand to Elena. "Don't make me knock you out again," he said, giving a half-smile.

Rolling her eyes, Elena slowly got up and went with Jeremy to get thing to leave.

When they were both upstairs, Rick looked at Stefan. "So what are you really going to do? You need some vervain?"

"No...but a wooden stake would work," Stefan said.

* * *

Gun shots echoed around Caroline as she felt the beast shudder on her chest.

"Get the hell away from my daughter," came her mother's angry yell from the distance.

Caroline vaguely thought that it was weird that her mom would talk like that to an animal, but she was thinking more about the animal and the blood on her.

It got hit two times before it leaped away and ran off toward the woods.

"Oh my god," Caroline half shrieked as she jumped off from the ground. She wasn't sure if it was coming back and she didn't want to be lying down to be easy dinner.

Matt got to her before her mom did and she grasped him for dear life, sobbing.

"Caroline...You're ok. You're ok. Let me go so I can look at you. Are you bleeding? Caroline," Matt said, trying to move her away to look at her, but she was holding on tight.

"I was so scared, Matt. I didn't know what was going to happen; if I was going to die or be eaten. What if it got my face and I ended up all gross and disfigured and..." she started before crying again.

Sheriff Forbes arrived at her side then, still half keeping her eyes on the woods. "Caroline! Are you alright? Were you bitten?" she asked, trying to pry her away from Matt.

It took both her and Matt to remove Caroline from him. They looked her over and looked past the blood on her shirt and looked for traces of wounds. She had a 4 gashes on her forearm from the claws, but there were no teeth or bite marks anywhere.

"Thank God," Caroline's mom sighed out in relief. She held Caroline in a hug for a moment before releasing her.

Matt started taking off his shirt to put over Caroline's arm.

"Why are you here?" Matt asked as he tied the shirt over her arm. Caroline stood there silently in shock.

"I wanted to check up on Tyler and his mother and discuss some town related business," she said, looking off into the distance. "Look, I'm going to make a call. Can you take Caroline to the hospital?"

"Of course. Wait. You might want to call for back up, though," Matt said, finishing up with Caroline's arm. "Tyler's mom is passed out in the kitchen. I didn't get to check on her because I saw that animal go around the other side of the house as I got back there."

"I'll check it out. Just please, make sure Caroline gets help," she said, reaching for her walkie-talkie.

"You can't go in there alone. What if it comes back? You can't," Caroline said, coming out of her stupor. "Matt. Tell her she can't go in there."

"Caroline. I'm an officer. I can handle it. Just go with Matt. Now. I'll be home later," she said with a final look in her eye.

Shaking her head, Matt walked her to his car.

Once Sheriff Forbes saw they were safely out, she got her gun back out and made her way toward the back of the house, circling every so often to make sure nothing was going to catch her off guard. She reached the broken glass doors and peered inside and was met with a scene that made her jump back in surprise.

* * *

"Didn't I tell you I would leave her alone and safe if you agreed to meet with me?" Katherine asked as she reached up with Damon at the place she had told him-she had chosen the cemetery.

"Because I have so much trust in you. Like I have had any reason to trust you," Damon said, scowling at her.

"Fair enough," Katherine said, brushing her fingers over the cold concrete of the gravestones.

"So what do you want?" Damon asked, ready to be done already. He shoved the worry he had for Elena to the back of his mind for the time being. He couldn't afford to be distracted.

"Are you really so willing to rush our little meeting? It's been so long," Katherine said, smiling and slowly approaching him.

"Cut the bullshit, Katherine. I know you want something and it's not some long lost reunion or you would have found me a hundred years ago..." Damon said, crossing his arms.

Katherine narrowed her eyes at him and leaned against the stone nearest to her. "I had my reasons for not meeting up. Half of it is your fault," she said, surprising him, "but we're not getting into that just yet. I don't want any unpleasantries. The last time you and I talked it wasn't under happy circumstances."

"You were about to kill Elena. What did you expect? A 'good job' and a pat on the back?" Damon replied, seething from the comment that she faulted him anything.

"I expected a less human reaction from you, but I guess you've changed much since the last time we were together...how have you been these past decades, by the way?" she said, trying to be conversational.

"Managed just fine, obviously," he said, losing patience. "Listen, I don't have time for idle chit chat, Katherine. Can we cut to the chase? What do you want?" he repeated, walking over to where she stood.

"Don't pretend that you have no feelings whatsoever for me, Damon Salvatore," she said walking over to him and placing a hand on his neck. "Besides," she said, now squeezing sharply on his throat. He struggled, but her years gave her the upper hand. "We had a deal that you would talk. You back down, so do I. So just go along with it, ok?" she said, setting him down and patting him on the cheek.

He caught his breath and swatted her hand away. As much as he hated to admit it, seeing Katherine elicited not only a lot of anger and hurt over everything that had happened, but brought up a combination of old feelings he had for her and frustratingly enough for him, her and Elena looking alike didn't help much either.

"I have a question that I've been dying to ask first before we catch up," Katherine asked after a minute.

Damon raised his brows. "And that is?"

"What did you do with John's body? I would have loved to take care of him personally. If you hadn't interrupted, I would have gotten my way. But things happen..." she said, staring at him, awaiting his response.

Damon looked back confused. "I didn't do anything with his body...I assumed you did."

"No..." she said, now staring off and growing angry. "But I sure as hell would like to find out who did."


	6. Reunion

"Who gets attacked by a freaking wolf. I mean, seriously?" Caroline said as they drove to the hospital. "And it was like huge and now my arm is all messed up and my mom!" she ended suddenly. "I can't believe she's just going to stay there and get it or something."

"Calm down, Caroline. She already shot it anyways. She's prepared and she'll be fine," Matt said glancing at her. "I'm just glad that you are alright."

She reached over and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for looking out for me."

"It's kind of what boyfriend's do," he said smiling.

Shortly after they pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and signed it at the desk. After being told to take a seat and wait to be seen, Matt got out his phone.

"Who are you calling?" Caroline asked as he put the phone to his ear.

"Tyler. I want to find out where he is and if he's ok. This is just what he needs to have something happen to his mom…"

She probably passed out from the alcohol and shock of seeing a giant wolf. She's fine," Caroline said, poking at her arm.

"Yeah," Matt said, hearing Tyler's voicemail come up. "Hey, man. I just wanted to check up and see how you are doing. I came by your house and there was some giant wolf in your yard. Sheriff Forbes is all over it though and making sure your mom is alright. Just call me when you get a chance." Matt shut the phone and leaned his head back on the chair.

* * *

"Your place is….nice," Elena said, looking around at what could only be described as a bachelor pad.

"Yeah. It's a work in progress," Alaric said, noting Elena's gaze as she looked at the pile of books and boxes scattered on the living room table.

Elena sat down on the loveseat and closed her eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" Jeremy asked her as he put their bags down on the floor.

"Yeah, Jer. I'm fine. I'm just worried. I can't stand just sitting here and doing nothing while the people I care about are out with a crazy vampire," Elena said, shaking her head.

"I know it feels like you're not helping, but just staying out of danger is enough to not make them worried. They'll be fine," Alaric said, heading to the fridge and grabbing three water bottles.

They sat there in silence for a while before Jeremy jumped up. "Jenna. I completely forgot!" he said rummaging in his bag for his phone.

"What about Jenna? What's wrong?" Elena asked, leaning forward in her seat.

"Katherine mentioned her earlier, that's all, and I just want to make sure she's alright. I mean, I don't think I did anything for Katherine to do something, but still," he said, scrolling through his recent call list to find the hospital number.

"Do you think she still believes you are under compulsion?" Alaric asked, furrowing his brow.

"I really do. At least I hope so. She believed me enough to leave me her under her instructions…Hi, this is Jeremy Gilbert," he said, as the operator picked up the line. "I was calling to check up on my Aunt, Jenna in room 3103? Yes, I'll wait…."

Elena mentally crossed her fingers as she waited to see Jeremy's reaction to the news on the other end.

"Alright. Thank you so much. Have a good night, too," Jeremy said, shutting his phone. "She's still safe, but in better news, they expect her awake in the morning. The swelling has gone down and she's stable."

"At least something's gone right," Elena said giving a small grin and seeing Alaric nod in agreement.

"So now what do we do?" Jeremy asked, looking around the room.

"I guess we have to wait," Elena said frustrated, "and just hope…" but she was interrupted by the chirp of her cell phone.

"Please be Stefan," she thought to herself as she got out her phone. But the caller i.d. showed that it was Bonnie.

"Hey, Bonnie," Elena said, nodding at Jeremy to let him know who it was, "What's up?"

"You are going to love me," Bonnie said happily.

"Bonnie. Does this mean that…"

"I found the spell you were looking for and it's totally do-able," Bonnie said excited.

"You are amazing, Bonnie. When do we do this? Can you do this soon? I don't want to rush anything or…"

"Well, it's a morning kind of spell if you can wait that long. It requires sunlight since vampires really are supposed to be stopped by the sun and such," Bonnie told her.

"That's perfect. Thank you so much," Elena said smiling.

"Any time, Elena. Hey are you alright? You sound off."

"I'll tell you about it tomorrow. It's kind of a long story," Elena said, glancing around the room. "I'm fine though. Thanks."

"Alright. But if you tell me you're fine one more time, I may have to hurt you," Bonnie said jokingly.

"Thanks Bonnie. See you tomorrow at….my place? Or yours?" Elena asked.

"We'll have to do it at yours since it's the place you want to do. So see you bright and early. Have coffee," Bonnie ended.

"Well, two for three on good news," Elena said, talking to Alaric and Jeremy. "Bonnie can rid our house of Katherine. Now all I'm waiting on is to hear from Stefan …"

Alaric nodded his head and joined them on the couch. He turned on the TV to the news and was about to change it when Elena stopped him.

"Wait. Stop. Isn't that the Lockwood's?" she said, seeing a large familiar house on the screen with cop cars and an ambulance. Sherriff Forbes was saying something, but the TV was on mute. "Turn it up," Elena said. But she didn't need volume to see what was happening behind the scene: a gurney with a body bag was being carted away to the ambulance.

"What the hell happened?" Jeremy said, moving closer to the screen.

* * *

"Well obviously he couldn't have just run away from the house," Damon said to Katherine as they pondered John's disappearance. "He seemed like he was dead when I left…"

"Ugh!" Katherine groaned out as a thought occurred to her. "Little worm probably had enough energy in him to slither over to his ring. I should have taken it as soon as I chopped off his pathetic fingers."

Damon stood there thinking of the other options, but he didn't voice them aloud. There was no reason to problem solve with Katherine. But as much as he hated to admit it, there was something almost comforting about being around her again. Like his past years of searching and hoping weren't in vain when the end goal was to find Katherine. Damon shook his head in anger for even thinking he would be together with her.

"So angry…wanna talk about it or, do something else to relieve the tension?" Katherine hinted suggestively.

"Let's not and say that we did," Damon replied. "So you brought me here for what? A stroll down memory lane? It's not exactly paved with sunshine and roses."

"Well, I did want to reminisce and talk it out eventually but with John's whereabouts unknown and what with your wolf problem, I think we can put that chat on the back-burner," Katherine said with a sad look in her eye.

"Fido? He's not a problem. But if you're worried enough to end our little convo, I'll be leaving now," Damon said, turning his back and strolling away from the gravestones.

"We're done when I say we're done," Katherine said, coming from behind and placing an arm around his shoulder.

"But you know what…I think we should have our important chat now after all," she said, looking around the graveyard and almost admiring the atmosphere. "After all, we have Stefan here now; the family completed," she said glaring into the tree Stefan was perched in.

* * *

Will this leave a scar?" Caroline asked as she was getting stitched up. "Because that will be a major let down."

The doctor looked like he was about to roll his eyes, but thought better of it. "You might have some small scars, but if you take care of it, it should heal up pretty well. For now, no heavy lifting or strenuous activity or you will pull them out."

"Well good thing cheerleading season is over then," Caroline mumbled as she watched the final stitch being put in.

The doctor wrapped the wound and gave her instructions, and showed her out the door. Caroline spotted Matt down the hall, who was looking pale.

"What's wrong? You weren't worried about me, were you? I mean, it was just stiches," she said, getting closer to him and examining his face.

"The uh, news was on the television, " he said nodding toward the screen in the upper corner of the waiting room, " and your mom was talking and discussing what happened tonight with the wolf and the break in…"

"Matt. You're freaking me out right now. Is my mom hurt? What?" she said, sitting down next to him.

"You're mom's fine, Caroline. It's Tyler's mom….she's dead," Matt ended, hanging his head.

"What! You said she was just passed out or something? I don't understand."

"Neither do I," Matt said, returning his attention back to the rest of the newscast.

* * *

A low growl came from the bushes behind the Lockwood house, but there was too much hustle and bustle of sirens and footfall mixed in with conversation that no one could hear it. Tyler sniffed the air catching the slightest hint of blood and sweat that carried from the house. He was in and out of remembering the events that had happened so far. He had tried phasing back to human form, but couldn't get it right yet. In those moments that he tried, he could remember himself more. Once he dropped such efforts, the wolf took over, and right now, it said to follow a scent on a trail behind him. His ears drew back as he made a small trek through the woods.

"This all came out of nowhere," Sherriff Forbes was telling the reporter. "I came on the scene merely coming to share condolences with Mrs. Lockwood about the mayor, and came across my daughter being mauled by a large wolf."

"Is this the same kind of creature related to the recent animal attacks Mystic Falls has seen?" the reporter asked.

"I won't know more until our investigation is over, but I believe it is."

"Didn't you and your fellow officers already take down the animal responsible for the attacks?" the reporter pressed.

"Yes. But it appears there is more than one," the sheriff ended, looking out into the woods.

Sherriff Forbes wanted to leave and discuss the events with the council, but she knew she couldn't let the media think that anything was out of control.

"What can you tell us about Mrs. Lockwood?" the reporter asked, averting her gaze to the body bag being brought to the ambulance.

Shaking her head, Sheriff Forbes told her of the scene she walked in on. "I circled round back and saw shattered glass on the lawn where the wolf must have broken through and…."

"What do you think would make a wolf enter a house like that?" the reporter interrupted."

"I have no idea….but I entered the house, saw Mrs. Lockwood unconscious and bleeding. I immediately called for the ambulance and they did their best to save her, but it was too late," she ended. "That's all I'm going to say for now. If you'll excuse me, I have to go."

The reporter looked disappointed in the sudden end to the interview, but resolved to wrap it up there and let the Sherriff go on her way.

What Sherriff Forbes didn't tell her was the state Mrs. Lockwood was in: there was no saving her. She had walked in to see her with her eyes wide open in fear and shock, her neck torn to ribbons by what seemed like razor sharp nails. Similar claw marks were on her body near her arms and chest where the wolf must have leaped. A large bite mark was also visible near her shoulder. She was lying in a large pile of blood and shattered glass. But what was the most disturbing was the fact that she was still alive. Sherriff Forbes let the final moments play out in her head and hated herself for what she had done. What she had to do.

* * *

"There's no word on the whereabouts of her son, Tyler. Authorities now are trying to get in touch with family to make arrangements," the reporter ended on the television.

"Oh my God. I can't believe something like that happened," Elena said, shutting off the TV.

"I hate the guy, but I wouldn't wish something like that to happen to his mom," Jeremy said. "It's terrible to lose both parents."

Elena and Jeremy sat there in silence for a while, letting the last comment pass through for a moment before Elena spoke up.

"Actually….and I don't want to just jump to this conclusion and," Elena said rambling on, "I promised to keep you in the loop, Jer, so I'm going to just say it. Tyler's dad was a werewolf and so is he."

"What?" Jeremy said, looking at Elena and an unsurprised Alaric. "I didn't even think such things existed! And now you're telling me Tyler is one? Explains why he's an asshole…"

"You didn't think vampires existed, so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch," Alaric said. "I didn't know Tyler was one, I just knew there were werewolves out there."

"Yeah. It was weird for me when I found out too. But…" Elena said, hesitating. "We're pretty sure there's only one werewolf in town and…"

"Wait. Are you saying you think Tyler killed his mom," Jeremy said surprised. "He may be a major douche, but I couldn't imagine him attacking her."

"Well being a werewolf, it was probably those instincts that took over. Something made him snap enough to shift," Alaric said speculating.

"What all do you know about werewolves, Mr. Saltzman?" Elena asked, walking to the kitchen to fill up her empty water bottle. Jeremy followed suit and soon they were all in the kitchen and Alaric started to get some chips out of the cabinet.

"Unfortunately, not much. Sorry. I just know that they exist; they are dangerous, and very rarely controllable. I only know one person who knows a lot about them, but…," he said, shrugging his shoulders and turning back to the cabinet.

"But what?" Jeremy said, not understanding the silence. Elena looked at him and sighed. "It's something you don't really know about yet. But he's referring to Isobel."

"She studied the supernatural for a long time, and not only vampires. She would be the one to ask about such things, but I doubt she would ever help and I wouldn't recommend finding her," he said, shutting the door.

"Wait. Isobel?" Jeremy said confused. "Not the same Isobel you found out that was your birth mother, right?

"The same one, only she took her research a bit further," Elena said uncomfortable. "Jeremy, she's a vampire too."

Jeremy stood there stunned for a moment. "Wow. I guess it's no wonder you kept me out so long. It all sounds pretty messed up."

"Tell me about it," Elena said shaking her head. "She gave birth to me when she was like, sixteen, and years after she was married she turned," she ended with a sad glance to Alaric.

"Hold on," he said, noticing the glance between Alaric and Elena. "Was Isobel married to you?"

"Yeah…but it's over now. Death to us part and all," Alaric said, grabbing a handful of pretzels and shoving them in his mouth.

"I guess…" Jeremy said.

"Hey. Not to be a party killer or anything, "Elena said jokingly, "but I'm exhausted and could really use some sleep."

"Yeah. No problem," Alaric said. "Umm, Elena, you take my bed for now. Me and Jeremy can rough it on the couches for now," he said, bumping Jeremy's arm.

"You sure? I don't want to steal your bed!" Elena protested.

"What kind of man would I be if I made you sleep on the couch. There are fresh or maybe at least cleaner sheets in the hall closet right there," he said pointing. "Let me make the bed for you."

"Nope. You gave me your bed, the least I can do is make it. Good night everyone," she said, grabbing her bag and heading to the hall closet.

"Night, Elena," Jeremy replied.

Elena shut the door and locked it. Taking her cell phone out of her jeans, she noticed there was still no word from Stefan.

"Ugh. Screw this," she said, throwing her bag down on the floor. She spied a window in the corner of the room and opened it up. Looking out she saw that this side led out to the street on the other side. Saying a quick thanks that Alaric had a place with only one floor, she took a deep breath and climbed out the window.

* * *

Elena was about to close the window behind her when she heard a knock coming from the bedroom door. She waited to see if they would knock again and she was greeted by another knock and Jeremy's voice on the other side. "Elena? You still up? I need to talk to you."

Making up her mind, Elena reluctantly climbed back in and shut the window. "Yeah, Jer. Just a sec."

She opened the door and let Jeremy in the room. "What's up?" she asked as she shut the door.

"It's just..." Jeremy started as he sat down on her bed. "You kind of threw everything at me all at once and I'm a bit overwhelmed at it all and still have questions."

Elena shook her head and sat down next to him. "I know. I'm sorry Jeremy. It's just that I've kept so much for you and now it was just really important to let you know everything you've missed."

"It's pretty crazy, Elena. I kinda feel bad for being so hard on you. You had a lot on your plate and I was selfish," he said.

'Like you didn't have enough going on your own life. It's understandable," she told him, giving him a quick hug.

"Fair enough...So I guess first off I want to know about the whole Isobel thing. I mean, it's one thing for you to tell me you wer adopted, but what, she's a vampire? And werewolves? Tyler? What do you know?"

Elena closed her eyes. She really wanted to find Stefan, but she knew she really needed to be there for Jeremy. "Alright. I'll start from the beginning Jeremy, it's a long story, but you asked for it."

Jeremy scooted back in the bed to lean against the post. "I'm ready to hear it all."

"Alright. But first I need you to keep an open mind and not judge anyone without hearing the whole story, ok?" Elena asked, scooting back next to him.

"Ok," jeremy said sounding confused.

"You asked about Isobel, so I'll tell you everything I know about her first," she started. "I guess I should start with who turned her," she said reluctantly, knowing what his reaction would be.

Taking a deep breath, she started to tell Jeremy everything.

* * *

Isobel paced the wooden floors impatient for her phone to ring. She had sent out her two assistants to keep a look out in town for Katherine and was anxious for some word back from them.

"She's probably with the Salvatores by now," a voice said from the couch.

She glared and walked into the living room. "You're probably right, but if that's the case, then I would have heard from them by now what's going on."

At that moment, her phone went off. She opened it eagerly. "What's going on?"

"Elena was about to sneak out of your ex husband's house, but she went back inside and shut the window. She's inside at the moment with that Jeremy kid," Cherie told her.

"Something is up, then," Isobel told her, continuing her pace around the room. "She wouldn't need to sneak out unless Rick was told to keep them there for some reason...any word from Frank?"

"Nothing. He was supposed to be trailing the brothers, No?" Cherie asked.

"Yes, but I have a feeling I may have to go out looking myself...Still keep a look out for Elena and call me if she steps foot out of that house again," Isobel said, snapping her phone shut.

"Why would she try to go look for them with Katherine out there? Is she out of her mind?" Isobel said, hanging her head.

"That's what happens when you are blinded by what you want," Isobel heard from the living room again. "That's what happened with you too, right?"

Isobel seethed a bit at the comment, but shrugged it off. "Perhaps..."

"So are you going to go check it out yourself or leave it to your friendly cowboy?"

She rolled her eyes and thought about it. "As much as I would love to right now, I think I'll wait until dawn. I know Elena's safe, so it's not vital to go running off right now. Besides, I know how much you enjoy my company."

"You mean you don't want me out of your sight."

"Obviously," she said, grabbing a bottle of wine out of the kitchen. She glanced at her phone again, willing it to ring. "I hate waiting," she said as she popped the cork.

* * *

Sheriff Forbes arrived at the hospital followed by the ambulance with Mrs. Lockwood's body. She nodded her head as they unloaded the gurney and entered the hospital. She made her way to the emergency room eager to find Caroline. She glanced around and noticed her and Matt sitting in the waiting room.

"Caroline," she called. She turned her head in response and stood up.

"Mom! Are you ok? I saw what happened on the news. Did you get that freakish wolf" she asked.

"I'm fine, Caroline. And no, it got away. How about you? Are you all fixed up?" she said glancing at the bandage on her arm.

"Yep. I got some stitches and the doctor was really kind of rude if you ask me. But he said no heavy lifting and such. I'm just waiting for the paperwork right now," she said, glancing at front desk impatiently.

"Great," she said, giving Caroline a hug. "Matt. Thanks again for everything you've done," she said over Caroline's shoulder.

"I'm glad you are Caroline are safe, but you were the hero tonight, Miss Forbes. No need to thank me," Matt said, standing up.

She didn't feel like much of a hero after what had happened, but she shook her head in appreciation, and reached over to give Matt a hug too.

While they waited for Caroline's paperwork, there was movement behind them as a person was rushed into the emergency room.

"Male, around 17-18 years old. Multiple wounds around the shoulder and abdomen. He was found unconcious by some fisherman near Wickery Bridge," the paramedic said as they came in.

Sheriff Forbes ran over to get a look and was surprised to see Tyler laid out on the gurney covered in blood. Caroline and Matt followed and were equally surprised to see him lying there.

"What happened," she asked the paramedic as they wheeled him away to the emergency room.

"Don't know, Sheriff. We just got a call to pick him up. It looks like he was attacked by some animal. Maybe the same one that was at the Lockwood manor tonight," she said.

"Are there any bullet wounds," she asked questiongly.

The paramedic looked surprised by such a question. "No. Just animal wounds. Why would you think someone shot him?"

But she shook her head. "Nothing. I'm going to have to call this in to the station, though..." she said, thinking of the council. "Who the hell did I shoot," she thought as she took out her phone.

"Is he going to me ok?" Matt asked with concern.

"The gashes are pretty deep, but it looks like the vital organs were unaffected. That's all I can tell you though, hun. Sorry," she said, turning around and heading back out to the ambulance.

"The Lockwoods are cursed or something," Caroline said, burrowing herself in Matt's chest.

"I don't see how things could get any worse," Matt agreed, staring into the hall, trying to get a glimpse of Tyler.

Sheriff Forbes shook her head as she waited for the person to pick up the phone. "If only you knew," she thought as she walked out of the hospital for some privacy.


	7. Information

Stefan jumped down from the branch he was in, internally cursing himself for not being more cautious. He landed silently feet away from a smirking Katherine and a scowling Damon. It was weird being near Katherine again; especially since he was with Elena now. The similarities were eerie. If she didn't have such a hardened look on her face and an absent heartbeat, Stefan would have a hard time telling them apart.

Katherine noticed him eyeing her and stepped forward. "My, my, Stefan. You're going to make me blush with all the staring," she said in a fake polite drawl.

"Believe me, I wasn't admiring you. Just observing," Stefan told her, still taking her in.

"Hmm. You boys. You always were able to keep me on my toes and make me feel so special with your furtive glances….I've missed having you both around," she said moving in so she was face to face with Stefan.

"If you missed it so much, why didn't you come and find us sooner rather than later, Katherine?" Stefan asked, walking away so that he was side by side with Damon.

"Oohh. And miss the fury that's pulsing through your bodies? I find it highly sexy," she said smirking at them. "But no. I can't tell you why I waited so long. You boys were a passing fancy at the time I suppose…besides, who wants to hang around newborn vampires? They are too testy and sometimes, they can get you killed…you almost got me killed when you weren't even vampires, come to think of it," she said, glaring at them.

The boys stood there in silence taking in Katherine's quick brush off of what they had. Stefan didn't feel the need to clear his name, but he thought that she should at least know what happened. "I didn't think it was going to go down like that, Katherine. I guess that's what happens when the person you trust the most lets you down."

"Besides," Damon said, snapping out of his reverie, "You escaped just fine…so nice of you to just let us rot for trying to save you. "

"I had nothing to worry about with you boys," she said, circling them." You each had my blood in me. I left it to you to decide what to do next. I did check on you a few times, though, to make sure you weren't complete menaces…"

"What?" Damon said, caught off guard.

"You really think I just up and left for so long without so much as a glimpse back. I'm hurt," she said, putting a hand to her chest.

"Well it's all about you, isn't it, Katherine?" Stefan said, narrowing his eyes.

"And why shouldn't it be?" she snarled, angry that the reunion wasn't anywhere near pleasant. "I created you. You would have been stuck rotting in a small town, ruled by a controlling father. And, you probably would have died at the ripe old age of 65. I saved your lives…"

"It wasn't yours to save," Stefan spoke out since Damon was still silent.

Katherine was about to speak again when Damon stepped forward. "When did you see us, Katherine?"

This made Stefan glance long and hard at his brother. He wasn't nearly as angry as he should be. It was as if he was trying to find something redeeming in Katherine; something worth it to forgive her for abandoning them.

She smiled and ran a hand down Damon's cheek. He stared back stonily, waiting for her reply.

"Well, before you boys even made the change, I was able to talk to Emily and let her know about what had happened. And then, I waited quietly out of the way to see what would happen. I followed you first, Stefan, to your father's house where you had a, hmmm…" she said, smiling, "heart to heart…."

Stefan snarled at the comment.

"I knew you had finally transitioned, so I left you to find Damon," she continued, ignoring Stefan's anger. "And you were sweet, just watching nature and thinking you had lost me. Made me want to jump down and kiss you myself…."

"Alright. So you saw us both change and then, what? Bolted?" Damon said, angered that she was so close the last moments of his humanity and stayed hidden.

"I gave Emily instructions, and then, yes. I left….I'm just sad she never go to carry them out, what with the witch hunt and all," she said, looking genuinely sad at the fact. Her face reminded Stefan of Elena's and that only disturbed him some more.

"Why would Emily tell Damon that you were in the tomb when she knew the whole time that you had gotten out?" Stefan asked.

"Because I told her to. Like I said, I needed some time away. Besides, I'm sure what with you promising the safety of her family, she had a bit to gain, didn't she?"

"And the other times you checked in?" Damon continued, brushing aside the anger he felt for the witch's deception.

"It was random sightings here and there. Nothing worth going over. I was out of sight observing. But I must say, the last time I checked in, it was to witness a heroic Stefan saving my meal…" she said, grinning the biggest smile she'd ever mustered.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked slowly, putting the pieces together and growing angrier.

"Well you see, the last time I was here was actually maybe around a year or so ago. I had already visited you Damon. You were in some city, feeding and boozing as usual, it seemed. Still feisty as I remembered," she said smiling at the angered Damon. "And I actually wasn't quite sure where Stefan was, so I took a hunch and ventured that maybe he headed back to Mystic Falls. Stefan was always a bit sentimental," she said, wistfully.

"So you found me," he said, breathing hard.

"Well, you kind of found me, I guess," she said glancing naughtily at Stefan. "I had just gotten into town and I was starving. I could sense you were out hunting in the woods for god knows whatever repulsive mammal. I on the other hand, could smell fresh blood coming my way. Three fresh bodies for the taking…"

Damon looked at Stefan confused as to why he was angrier than he should be. He didn't understand where Katherine was heading.

"But you see, they were in a car, and I couldn't just jump out in front of it like some animal, so I threw one that I caught in front of it instead. And man, did that car swerve and flip right into the water! I didn't mean to be so messy!" she said, shaking her head.

"You were on Wickery Bridge?" Stefan asked, shaking.

"What is it Stefan?" Damon asked.

"Well," she said, turning to Damon, "I guess you could say I ran into some Gilberts in town…literally," she said, laughing at her own joke.

Damon narrowed his eyes and felt everything fall into place. Elena's car crash. She almost died because of Katherine.

She was still laughing when she noticed two snarling Salvatore brothers, crouching to attack.

"Boys," she said, exasperated, crouching down in her own position, ready to attack.

* * *

Tyler opened his eyes, disoriented with the blinding white light coming from overhead. His body burned, but he didn't know why. He tried to sit up, but a hand held him down.

"Mr. Lockwood? My name's Dr. Matthews. You're in the hospital. Do you understand what I'm saying?" the voice said.

Tyler focused on the face and looked around. Sure enough, he saw the obvious hospital setting and nodded his head. "What happened?" he said, groggily.

"You were attacked by some animal, it appears. You to get some sutures and stitches in your chest and abdomen, but it was superficial. No internal damage. You're going to be alright," the doctor told him.

Tyler closed his eyes. He didn't remember being attacked by an animal. He tried hard to think back of the night's events. He remembered yelling at his mom in the kitchen….staring through the bushes at the house, trying to phase….following a scent in the woods…a bridge. But it was all brief flashes. He couldn't put enough together to figure out what happened.

"My mom," he said, trying to sit up, "I have to talk to my mom."

The doctor looked at him questioningly, wondering if he should tell Tyler what had happened.

"Right now, you need to rest up and heal. I know the police want an official statement on what happened. But until then, rest," the doctor said, giving him one final nod and leaving the room.

"Shit," he thought to himself. He didn't know what to tell the police when he didn't even know himself. Where did they even find him.

"Wait. Doc. Where exactly was I found anyway?" he said, trying to act dazed and unsuspicious.

"I believe they said some fisherman found you out by the bridge," he said, shutting the door behind him.

"When the hell did I go out that way?" he thought. He was still thinking when there was a knock at the door.

He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. "Oh. He's sleeping," he heard Matt's voice say from the door.

"No man, I'm up," Tyler said. He thought it was the cops and wasn't quite ready for them yet.

"Hey. I'm not going to ask how you're feeling because you probably feel like shit, but do you need me to get anything for you?" Matt asked, getting closer to the bed.

"My freakin brain would be good. I can't remember shit, man," he confided to Matt.

"Were you on something? Matt asked, frowning.

"I…maybe.." he said, not wanting to go into more details.

"I understand if you were, but you need to quit that stuff. It's not going to do you any good," Matt told him, sitting down on the chair.

"I wish I could," he told him, honestly.

"I can try and help you if you want. If you'll let me," Matt said.

"Thanks..but…" Tyler sighed. There was not way he was going to let Matt in on something as messed up as to what was going on now. Not when Tyler didn't even know himself.

"Hey listen. Can I borrow your phone? I need to talk to my mom. We ended on an angry note and I just want to clear the air," Tyler told him, scooching up into a sitting position.

"They didn't…"Matt began looking uncomfortable. "I don't know if I should be the one to tell you, but…"

"Tell me what?" Tyler interrupted.

"Your mom…she….There was some giant wolf on the loose, probably the same that attacked you. And, well she was at your house alone and she was attacked, and…..she didn't make it…I'm so sorry Tyler," Matt said sadly.

Tyler began shaking and his head was reeling. "My mom's dead? She was attacked by a wolf? She…" he trailed off, getting more panicked and guilt ridden and angry by the second. His heart monitor started beeping at the increase in his heart rhythm.

"Hey, Tyler. Breathe. There was nothing you could have done. It was a freak incident," Matt said, trying to calm him down.

But Tyler was trying to force images back in his head again and was getting more frustrated that he was drawing blanks. "I killed my mom," he thought to himself as he let out a snarl.

"Tyler?" Matt questioned, backing away at the sound that came from his mouth.

At that moment, nursed rushed in, taking in his wounds and looking over the heart monitor. They injected something into his IV and soon Tyler was out.

"What the hell was that?" Matt thought as the nursed scooted him out of the room.

* * *

Alaric waited outside the door to his room, debating whether he should knock or just go in. They had been in there talking for a while and now it was silent. Worried that for some reason or another they had tried to slip out and do something stupid, he opened the door a crack and peered in.

He let out a small sigh of relief as he saw them both passed out sitting up on the bed. He shut off the light and quietly closed the door. "They'd kill me if anything would have happened," he thought to himself. "Or at least try to, and that part hurts like a mother…"

In the living room, the lights still flared as he hadn't been able to sleep yet. The news report about the wolf attack left him curious about werewolves. He had resorted to getting out his laptop and researching the lore on werewolves, but Google wasn't providing anything useful. He didn't really expect it to give some good answers, but it was something to go on for the moment.

The same things that popped up about them were their obvious repulsion to silver and the fact that bites could transform a normal person into one. Those were the common ones. Some of the more creative ones that came up when he typed in werewolf were that they howled at the moon, something about Team Jacob, and some board game aptly named 'Werewolf'.

Satisfied that Elena and Jeremy weren't going anywhere, he sat back down on the computer to try and search out more scholarly sources. His main concentration before had been vampires because of what happened with Isobel. He decided to try out some of his previously reliable sources to see what he could come up with on the werewolf front.

"If only Isobel wasn't a dead, cold bitch now, it'd be great to get her help on this one," he thought to himself as he began a long string of search terms to find the information he was looking for.

* * *

Matt walked back to Caroline, who was leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. She gave him a questioning look as he got closer.

"How'd it go? Is he all messed up? Will he need like major surgery or anything?" Caroline asked. "And why are you making that 'what the F face?"

Matt almost smiled at her last question, but was still stuck on what he had heard in Tyler's room. "Sorry. I just thought I heard something….weird," he said, not wanting to make Caroline think he was crazy. Saying, "Tyler growled at me like an animal," would probably make her a little worried.

"He's probably going to go home soon. He got stitched up, but nothing too serious, I think. I don't know if they want to keep him overnight or anything, though, just in case," he ended.

"Good," Caroline said. "Hey. Not to sound totally uncaring and selfish, but could you take me home? It's been a really long night and I'm so ready to get out of this hospital," she said, leaning into his chest. "And I don't know where my mom disappeared to. She's going to be super busy with all this stuff tonight."

"It's not selfish. You've been through a lot tonight. You deserve to rest," Matt told her, leading her toward the door. "Besides, Tyler's out for the night anyway and since I'm not family, visiting hours are over," Matt said, grabbing her hand.

"Thanks," she said looking at him before she scanned the hospital one more time for signs of her mom.

They walked back to his car and drove away from the hospital. They drove in comfortable silence for a while until Caroline decided she's been silent too long.

"Hey. So what do you think will happen with Tyler now that his parents died?" she asked. "Do you think they will stick him with an aunt or uncle like they did with Elena?"

Matt shook his head. "I don't think so. I mean, Tyler's birthday is in like, 2 weeks and then he's legally an adult. So I don't know if they would still provide him with a guardian. And I don't think the Lockwood's really have any close relatives."

"Oh," Caroline replied, thinking it over. "So he's just going to be alone? That's depressing."

"I doubt it. Either Rio or Chloe may come back to town and stay with him. Who knows," Matt said, turning onto Caroline's block.

"And they are?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"His older brother and sister. They're either in college if not graduated by now. I don't really know. I didn't really hang around them much," Matt said pulling into the driveway. Sheriff Forbes car was still out for the night.

"I didn't even realize he had a brother or sister. Weird. They didn't go to our school?" she asked him.

"Some boarding school. They were pretty stuck up and prissy compared to Tyler. They thought they were better than everyone. But this is all just me remembering things when I hung around them when I was little," Matt said getting out of the car.

"I guess we'll have to see, then….So…" she said, glancing up at Matt. "My mom's still out. You want to stay over? I bet she won't even be home till morning or something."

"Caroline. I know your mom likes me, but she would definitely have a problem if a boy spent the night spooning with her daughter," he said smirking at her.

"But I could tell her that I was too scared to be left alone and that you were my personal guard. We'll even pass out on the couch. Very less, 'how dare you sleep near my daughter' pose," she said, unlocking the door.

"Fine," Matt said, making up his mind. "But if she yells, pulls out the mace, or even worse, her gun, it's all on you," he said mockingly.

"I'll take the risk then," she said smiling and walking into the house. But she only got a few steps when Matt's hand went across her chest.

"Hold on, Caroline. Something's off, "he said, flipping the switch on to light the hallway.

In random trails around the house lay shredded paper, torn couch cushions, and tossed about cabinet drawers. They stared in shock wondering who would have ransacked the house.

"Should we even go in? What if the person's still here stealing or doing whatever?" Caroline asked, her eyes darting around the room.

Not wanting to have to run into danger for a second time that night, Matt decided to back out of the house with Caroline. "Call your mom and tell her what happened," he said once they were safe in his car.

"This is the crappiest night ever," Caroline said rolling her eyes and pulling out her cell phone.

* * *

"Do you really want to fight right now?" Katherine said circling the boys as they mirrored her steps. "Really? What's done is done…And if it makes you feel any better, it's not like it was personal. I didn't even mean for the crash to be that bad. I wanted live people to bleed, remember?"

"I would beat both of you in five seconds anyways. Especially mister vegetarian," she said with a nod toward Stefan.

Stefan was still snarling, not content to quit and let her think that she got away with it, but he knew she had a point. Damon might have had some chance. But with Stefan not up to par with his skills, he would just be in the way; a distraction, even.

Damon and Stefan stopped their circling and resorted to death glares with their eyes.

"I didn't know who the people even were at the time," Katherine continued once she saw they had backed down. "I was getting ready to jump in and grab one when I felt Stefan coming... It's a creator/ created bond thing," she said at their confused faces. "I can always sense when you guys are close."

"Anyways. He came charging in so I hid high up in the trees. He was focused on the crash so he didn't notice me. I saw him go under. You were under for a while," she said with a thoughtful glance toward Stefan. "I thought for sure you were getting the driver out the way you jumped in, but you came from the back instead….with some girl," she ended with a slow snarl.

Damon looked over at Stefan with a question in his eyes: a look that said we need to talk later. Stefan looked away and back to Katherine who was still reminiscing.

"I was curious to see what you would do, Stefan. There was blood for the taking and I wondered if you would just take a bite. And then I saw her face and was no longer curious about what you would do… I must say in all my years, I was never taken by surprise so much than when I saw my face on someone else," she said shaking her head and laughing.

"You're telling me you stayed quiet and hidden while your doppelganger was lying there bleeding? Such restraint? Damon said leaning against the gravestones.

"I wasn't going to blow my cover there, look-a-like or not," she said with a mean glance toward Damon. "But I researched after that night to find out about her. I also found out that there was one good piece of news to be had from the night."

"And that was?" Stefan asked.

"I at least rid the world of one Gilbert. I'm two for two, now. It's nice to get revenge on the people who wanted you gone in the first place," she said smiling.

"What vendetta could you possibly have, Katherine? You weren't entombed for over a hundred years. You have nothing to blame the founders for. You're still such a selfish child whining over how people were mean to you for five minutes" Damon spit out.

At that comment, Katherine's eyes flared red and she was at his throat in seconds. "How dare you call me that," she screeched at him, reminded of when he called her that once before he was under compulsion.

She felt a harsh blow to the back of her head and jumped off Damon to see Stefan with a large rock in his hand.

"Easy, caveman," Damon said as Stefan backed up.

"So that's how it's going to be? You Salvatore's' defending the Gilberts? Some old town founders who never gave a crap about anyone and condemned us to die?"

They were all back in fighting stances despite Katherine's warning earlier that they were no match.

"It's more like defending the town from a self-serving psychopath," Stefan said with force.

Then Katherine started laughing. "This is so not about the town or me being crazy at all," she said, shaking her head. "It's about Elena. It's about you boys wanting to protect and….love her," she said with wide eyes. "You never learn do you?"

Damon furrowed his brow and got closer to Katherine. "Those are your words, not mine. Now are we going to talk all night and brood, because that's Stefan's category, not mine. He can brood for years at a time. I on the other hand would love to rip your throat out or at least get to some useful conversation."

Before Katherine could reply, Stefan cut in. "Do you have someone in the woods with you?" Stefan asked, turning in the direction of a sound he heard a few feet behind him.

"No," Katherine said, darting her eyes between the brothers and the woods. "Do you really think you can distract me like some stupid human because….oh I see," she said realizing there was another presence in the woods.

"Come out now and I won't snap your head off," she snarled into the trees.

"I don't' have anyone with me," she said with a final look to Stefan and Damon.

"It could be Fido looking for pupperoni," Damon said sniffing out the air.

"No…it's vampire," Stefan said leaping into the trees.

* * *

After some sounds of struggling, Stefan emerged back into the clearing with a man with a short brown hair and a large muscular build. Katherine and Stefan were both eyeing him, unfamiliar with who he was. Damon, on the other hand knew who he was and hid that knowledge from both.

"Who are you?" Katherine snarled at him while Stefan held him to keep him from escaping

He still struggled but remained silent. After a minute, though, he was able to break free of Stefan's grasp. Damon shot after him before anyone could react and quietly whispered in his ear. "Don't tell them anything."

The man looked at him suspiciously but still struggled as he was brought back to Katherine and Stefan.

In an instant, Katherine was in his face wielding a stick. She didn't hesitate to plunge it into his abdomen. Damon released him as he fell to the ground yelling out. "Son of a bitch," he murmured as he pulled the stick out of his body and threw it to the ground.

"Yes. You probably are one, but I asked your actual name, and why are you here exactly?" Katherine asked as he started to get up.

"I feel like I should know you from somewhere," Stefan said pensively, trying to remember when he saw him.

"I think you'd remember the muscles," Damon said trying to distract Stefan's train of thought. "So were you just passing through the woods? Hunting? What?" Damon said, leading him on.

"Hello?" Katherine asked impatiently as he remained silent. "Do I seriously need to stake you again, because I can aim lower," she said picking up another stick with a wicked grin.

The man sighed and shook his head, deciding what to do. "My name's Frank….and I was just passing through and I heard conversation and got nosy. Sorry," he said, glancing around at the group, staring at Damon a second longer.

"Is that so?" Katherine asked approaching him.

"It's a little too coincidental you happened upon us here," Stefan said, getting closer and trying to identify him. "Were you with one of the tomb vampires?"

Damon glared at Stefan trying to mentally tell him to shut up. Damon knew fully well that Frank was Isobel's pet that she apparently decided to turn. The last thing Katherine needed was to find out that she was being spied on by Isobel. Damon could care less if Isobel was killed, but the fact was that she was somewhat useful and bitch or not, Elena would still care if she died.

"Doubt it," Damon said, coming next to Katherine's side. "He's too new to have followed any of the old tomb vamps."

"I don't even know about any tomb," Frank said trying to go along with it all. "I really was just passing through. I saw that I would be outnumbered and tried to escape just in case you were violent, and I was right. Now can you release me?"

Katherine plunged the stake into his chest, closer to the heart. "You are a terrible liar," she said menacingly. "Tell me why you're here and if someone sent you, and I'll let you live….maybe," she ended looking him in the eyes.

Frank screamed out and started to rip the stake out of his chest. He looked like he was about to spill the reason he was there, but Damon wasn't going to let that happen. In a quick motion, Damon tore the stake out of his bloodied hand and plunged it into his heart.

He let out one final scream and look of confusion as he fell to the ground. Stefan looked at Damon in amazement as Katherine growled at him at anger and lunged at him.

* * *

_Werewolves are most vulnerable in their human form. As any human can be killed, so can a werewolf. Their abilities lie in their transformative nature—their advanced speed, strength, and healing. All such ability is not transferred when human…._

Alaric rubbed his eyes and took a sip of coffee as he read the last paragraph from a well-trusted source online. "That makes sense," he thought yawning. He had been up half the night trying to find out some useful information. He thought about what Damon told him about the mayor's neck being snapped in that basement.

This information was the only useful bit he had come across. He had yet to find when werewolves could transform, anything on full moons, and whether silver was indeed the weapon of choice against them. He stifled another yawn and shut his laptop. He was finally tired enough to call it a night and grab some sleep on the couch.

He jotted down some notes on the notebook he left on the desk. He had written anything he deemed useful, along with some names and numbers of some contacts he would try during normal daylight hours. He only hoped that he didn't sound like some crazy nut asking about werewolves. Throwing the pen down gently, he shut the lights off and made his way to the living room.

He looked at the time on the clock and sighed. If he wanted to see Jenna early, he'd only get a few hours of sleep—meaning two. "Man the time flew," he said aloud as he headed to the couch. He was about to plop down when he caught movement outside the window. Furrowing his brow, he raced over to window and looked out. He saw a slight flash of brown hair go around the corner. He shook his head. "I'm being paranoid," he thought as he drew back the curtains and headed for the couch.

-o-

Cherie circled the block and came back to the window where Elena still slept. "That was too close," she murmured as she settled back into the bushes. She had gone to the other side to see what Alaric was up to and was surprised to find him awake and looking out the window.

She was told to watch Elena until either something exciting happened, one of the brothers arrived, or the sun rose. The former would be fun for her, but anything other than waiting here uncomfortable would be fine with her too. She had already had to fight the urge to jump an early jogger moments ago. She didn't know if she could do it again.

She vaguely thought about texting Frank to see if he was up to anything exciting, but thought better of it. She didn't know if Isobel would snap and call them imbecilic for communicating while spying and plunge a few spikes in their chest. Shrinking at the thought, she closed her eyes and waited, counting down the hours till sunrise.

* * *

Sheriff Forbes ignored the vibration from the phone in her pocket. She wasn't in the mood for answering the media or any other worried residents. She had to discuss the situation with the council. She pulled into the back of the courthouse and parked her car.

Inside she was greeted by at least 7 other people. Their number had dwindled rapidly over the year and she found herself the only founding family member left. Logan Fell, John Gilbert, and Mayor Lockwood had all died and left no replacements on the council. She nodded her head thinking of the lives that were lost and motioned everyone to take a seat.

"What's going on Elizabeth?" Arthur Maxwell asked as they all settled down.

"As you're all aware, we've had animal attack, as recent as today, where my daughter was injured and Mrs. Lockwood was killed," she said glancing around at their faces.

"And you don't mean the vampire kind this time, do you, Liz?" Sara Philips asked from the corner of the room.

"No. This time it's an actual animal attack that I believed to be the work of just one werewolf, but now I'm not so sure," she said thinking back to Tyler in the hospital. "We may be dealing with multiple wolves."

"It was mentioned in the journals," Sara said thoughtfully. "We know they existed back in the time of our ancestors. Why would they bother to show up again now and here?"

"Your guess is as good as mine,"Lizz said. "All I know is that we can't let this go any further. What we need is more information and a definitive way to catch them."

"What about Damon Salvatore?" Arthur asked. "He was knowledgeable about the vampires in the town. Do you think he knows anything about werewolves? Where is he by the way?"

"I tried getting in contact with him tonight, but I was unsuccessful. But I had approached him after the first animal attack and he was as unaware about them as we are," she said with disappointment. "We will have to study all the journals more to find out more about these creatures."

"From what I've glanced over so far in the journals, they were night creatures moved on by the moon. So our days are at least safe from such attacks. We will just have to patrol the night," Lester Higgins said standing up.

Everyone nodded their heads in consent.

"So I guess for now we have to move fast and find out what we can and pool our sources," Lizz said, standing up and getting ready to leave.

"What exactly happened to Mrs. Lockwood anyway, Lizz? Lester asked.

Lizz thought back to the gruesome scene and decided to come clean. "I got to the kitchen and she was bleeding out on the floor with scratch marks all over her body and a pretty massive bite mark to the neck…"

"Oh my God," Sara murmured gently.

"Was she dead yet?" Artie asked unabashed as people looked at him harsh glances.

Lizz hesitated. "No…She was struggling, but you could tell her final moments were coming. But something strange happened and…

"Strange?" someone asked.

"Her eyes seemed to dilate wildly and take on an almost yellow hue and….almost like a growl came from her mouth, but it was muted since she was dying," Lizz said thinking back to the harsh last moments.

"And….I. I had to do what was necessary. I took the knife out of my holster and plunged it upward into her heart," she ended closing her eyes.

"You did your job, Lizz. Don't feel guilty about it," Sara said comfortingly.

"If you didn't, we'd have more werewolves to worry about. I assume the knife was silver? But will the forensics team be suspicious that she was stabbed? Artie asked. "And don't give me those looks that I'm being harsh. Sacrifices have to be made," he said sternly.

"Yes, Artie. It was silver. When I was sure she was dead, I made a wound with the blade what was a similar pattern to that of the claw marks. I don't think they'll look to close and if they do, I'll deal with it then."

"Well, the good news to all this is that we know at least two definitive things about werewolves," Lester said. "That their bite transfers the mutation and that silver can kill them."

Lizz knew she should feel more accomplished instead of guilty, but she was finding it hard. She nodded her head as murmurs of good job and other comments went around the room.

"So what do we do about Tyler," Lester asked when everyone quieted down.

Lizz's head shot up at that comment. She remembered Tyler in the hospital all torn up and wasn't sure what to think.

"I'm not 100% sure if he is a werewolf. He was brought to the hospital all clawed up. And he had no gunshot wounds," she said thinking back to it.

"Well if we find out for sure, then I guess we will do what's necessary," Artie ended standing up.

Nodding their heads in agreement, they left the room as Lizz sat there deep in thought.

"He's just a kid," she thought miserably both to the fact that she killed his mom and that she may have to kill him too.


	8. Messes

Elena awakened slowly, taking in her surroundings. She was greeted with unruly piles of clothes and semi bares walls. It took her a moment to realize that she was at Mr. Saltzman's house. She didn't even remember falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was that she had a long needed talk with Jeremy. She glanced over to see Jeremy passed out on the other side.

She shook her head and smiled. The smile was short lived when she realized that someone was sitting in the chair in the corner. She almost leapt out of the bed when she saw him.

"Easy. It's just me," Stefan said, getting up to approach Elena.

"Stefan!" she said, jumping into his arms before he made the final distance to the bed. "I was so worried about you. I was even going to go find you when something came up," she ended regretfully.

"I'm glad you decided against it," Stefan murmured as he brought her in for a hug. She nestled deeply in his chest and stood there a moment, glad that he was safe.

"What happened then? You were gone for a really long time," she said, breaking the silence.

"It's kind of a long story. Want to go get breakfast and talk about it?" Stefan asked, kissing her temple.

"Ummm….as long as it's not your version of breakfast," she said teasing him and giving him a peck on the lips. She had missed him in his absence that she was just glad to be around him again.

He laughed at the humor of it and looked down at her appreciatively. "I was thinking pancakes at the diner," he said kissing her back.

She rushed over to her bag and whipped out a hair brush. She swept through a few times and threw it back in her bag. "Almost done," she said. She then took out a leather book from her bag that Stefan recognized as her journal. Grabbing the pen in her bag, she wrote out a note to Jeremy and Alaric explaining where she had gone and left it on the bed.

"Ready," she said, heading back to Stefan.

"Ladies first," he said gesturing to the open window.

She glanced to the closed door and back to where he gestured and shook her head. "Why thank you," she said sarcastically as she climbed out the window.

As they settled in the booth, Elena could hardly think of ordering breakfast when she had a hundred questions on her mind. Stefan solved the situation by ordering for her.

"Thanks," she said appreciatively. "So tell me everything," she said without pause.

"Ok. It's a long one, but wait till the end to really react or go nuts or you might get too worried, alright?" he said as he grasped her hand.

"Alright," she said tentatively. She already felt worried at the fact that he had to warn her already of what was to come.

Through refills of juice and coffee from the waitress and the arrival of pancakes for the both of them, Stefan retold in detail what had happened in the woods. He had just finished the part about Damon staking Frank when Elena dropped her fork, the metal clanking loudly on the porcelain plate.

"He killed him?" she asked stunned. "But why?"

Stefan was half tempted to lie about why he did it. She looked so hurt that Damon had done wrong that the jealousy he had felt by their growing companionship tempted him to tell her he simply acted on impulse. It would certainly make her question Damon. But he couldn't bring himself to lie to her.

"After it was all over and we were out of Katherine's way, he reminded me that Frank worked for Isobel….If he had finally succumbed and told Katherine who he worked for, Isobel probably would have been hunted down and tortured, if not killed," he said, looking at Elena with concern.

She took in a few deep breaths and thought about what Stefan had said. It never really sunk in completely that Isobel was her mother, but him bringing up the fact that her life was threatened really brought the idea home.

"Katherine would have killed my mother?" Elena asked in surprise.

"If she would have found out that she was being spied on by Isobel without her knowledge, most likely," Stefan said, grasping her hand.

"I'm horrified that Frank had to die for her to be safe, but I'm also kind of relieved," she said hesitantly. "It's good to know that you have back up, even as unreliable as Isobel."

Stefan nodded at her, surprised at her constraint. "Me and Damon will really have to go visit her. Obviously Isobel knew what we were up to, so she may be up to something as well."

"I'm coming with you," she told him with certainty.

"I thought you'd say that," he said slowly as the waitress came over to refill their drinks.

"So what happened after Damon…" she said, not ending the sentence in case anyone decided to listen.

"Katherine lunged at him and beat him up a bit, but he talked his way out of it," Stefan explained. "He said that Frank was useless and an utter waste of his time. He even babbled on about how he wasted the time Katherine had to talk to us. She seemed to buy the lie out of sheer vanity," Stefan said, shaking his head.

"Figures," Elena said, sipping her orange juice. "So how did you end up leaving?"

"She said she tired of the whole affair and that she would come to us again at another time, but separately since she said we were, quote, "too much to handle together," he said with a wry smile.

"Why is that a good thing?" Elena asked in response to his smiling.

"Because it makes it that much easier to kill her," he said, sipping his water.

* * *

Damon threw the fifth crystal glass to the floor of the boarding house. He felt the need to destroy more, but felt like the glasses in the house had gone through enough damage. As he approached the sixth glass, he grasped it angrily and poured whisky into it. "It's happy hour somewhere," he murmured humorlessly as he downed it in one gulp.

He threw himself over the arm of the couch and replayed the past hour in his head.

Katherine had lunged at him, clawing at his chest and eventually taking a bite out of him in the process. He hit back and struggled in response. It wasn't until Stefan joined the fight that she finally decided to back down. She licked her lips, reveling in the taste of Damon's blood.

"Hmmm. Not bad," she said as though appreciating a glass of wine. "What the hell were you thinking?" she hissed out once everyone had settled down.

"I was thinking, why are we wasting our time with some newbie vampire when we were in the middle of a conversation. Besides, I don't want to clean up after his mess in this town," Damon said, grasping his neck and rubbing it. It had already closed up, but it was still healing.

"What are you playing at?" Katherine asked suspiciously.

"If you haven't noticed, I've decided to help this town out. If we get random killings, they are going to go hunting for vampires again. They don't have time for that when there are werewolves running around," Damon said, frowning at her. "And like I said, he was wasting your time."

"Almost like you're wasting ours," Stefan said angrily.

"Hmm….You know what, there is a lot being wasted here right now. I'm done talking for now. This has been utterly pointless," she said, kicking Frank's body. "Don't think we're done here. Next time we talk, I talk to you on my terms, separately; you're too much to handle together."

She sauntered over to Damon who was still scowling and placed a kiss on his cheek. She approached Stefan in the same way but he stepped away from her.

"We'll see," she said with a sly smile at his rejection. She then disappeared into the woods.

"So do you want to get rid of the body, or shall I little brother," Damon asked after a few moments…..

"I should have punched her in the face," Damon said angrily, getting back to the present.

Deciding that the glass in his hand decided to be broken too, he threw it down to the ground. He laid there a moment before deciding to check his phone. He had three missed calls and a text message from Elena that asked if he was alright. He smiled at that, but shook it off. Instead of texting back, he listened to the voicemail left on his phone.

"Hey, Damon. It's Liz. The werewolf problem is getting stronger. We're going to have a council meeting now if you could make it to the courthouse as soon as possible. Thanks." The message ended and Damon checked the time it was left.

"Missed out on that excitement," he said, putting his phone back in his pocket. Getting up, he decided to go see what the council had come up with in the meantime. He glanced around the room at the shattered glass on the floor and shrugged his shoulders. "Stefan can get his animal friends to help him clean this up" he said smirking as he pictured Stefan as some messed up version of Snow White. He chuckled at that and left the house.

He got into his car, threw the phone on the seat, and sped down the driveway. A few moments later, his phone buzzed with an incoming text. It was another one from Elena. **"If you're going to turn all broody like Stefan, we're going to need to talk. Lol. But seriously, as your friend, I'm here for you."**

Damon smirked. He didn't think she had it in her to mock Stefan. "I guess I'll make a pitt stop," he said, making up his mind to visit Elena.

* * *

Sheriff Forbes rushed home after listening to the various voicemails Caroline had left her. She sped up to the driveway of the house and saw no sign of Matt or Caroline. Her cellphone was in her hands in seconds as she dialed Caroline's number.

"Hello?" came a sleepy reply.

"Caroline? Are you ok? Where are you?" she asked worriedly.

"Mom? You didn't get back to me, so we left. I'm at Matt's house and I was sleeping," she said grumpily.

"Sorry, Caroline. I was in the middle of something. If I would have realized it was you…..What happened?" she asked, getting out of the car and approaching the house.

"We got there and it was all messed up like someone was looking for something. We didn't go in any further just in case someone was still there," she said, yawning.

"They're probably gone by now," Lizz replied. She took her gun out just in case she was wrong. "Listen, I'm home now and I'm going to check it out. I'll call you later and let you know when it's safe."

"Ok, mom," Caroline said sounding tired. "Be careful."

"I will," she said, shutting the phone. Grasping the gun in both hands, she approached the door and entered the house. It was just as Caroline had said; there were papers scattered all over and torn items tossed about haphazardly.

She made a quick progression around the house, noticing that the den, living room, and bedrooms were ransacked. The kitchen was left alone as was the dining room.

"They were definitely looking for something," she said, looking out the back door. She locked it and put her gun away once she knew the house was free from any intruder. "But what were they looking for?"

She sighed thinking about the cleaning task in front of her. Heading to the den, she made a mental list of items that would have drew anyone's attention. She had some police reports in her drawer and a few old bank statements, but she couldn't see what use that could be to someone.

Knowing that she wouldn't find out what was missing until it was cleaned up, she put her gear away and started the long process of going through the wreckage to see what was lost.

**I'm more excited for the next chapter, but here's a little filler for now. Review and Enjoy. Cheers.**


	9. Spell work

Elena finished sending a text to Damon with a smirk on her face. He had ignored the first one, but she was betting this one would get his attention. As she was closing her phone, she noticed the time. "Crap. It's almost 9!

"Which means?" Stefan asked looking at her with curiosity.

"Ugh.. I told Bonnie to be at my house early for the spell... She's probably almost there. I gotta go," she said, reaching over to give Stefan a kiss. "Ooh, and I need to make a pit stop at Starbucks. I promised coffee," she said, getting out of the booth.

"What are you girls up to?" Stefan asked.

"Remember how I told you that Bonnie was going to look for a spell to un-invite vampires? Well she found one, but it only works during the day since that's when you guys are supposed to be hiding in coffins or something," she said with a smile.

"Ahh. So that's what I'm supposed to do? Nice to know," he said returning the smile.

They headed out of the restaurant and Elena headed to her car. "So what are your plans for today? " she asked as she fished her keys out of her purse.

"Well assuming Damon's done fuming, I'm going to see if he wants to research some on werewolves….maybe even check out the Lockwood's to see if we can catch a trail," he said looking out into the distance.

"I hope he's alright," she said thinking of how Damon must be feeling. She still hadn't heard back from him yet and was betting he was probably on a drinking binge.

"It must be terrible, for both of you to be dealing with her back in town. But," she said, changing topics as she saw Stefan's face fall a bit, "You guys are pros at tracking and finding things out, so I'm sure you will find some good info to go on about either her or the werewolves. Speaking of…I should call Caroline later and find out what she knows."

"Good idea," Stefan said, reaching in for a hug. "I'll call you later. Let me know how the spell goes with Bonnie."

"I'll keep you posted. Love you," she said as she got into the car.

"Love you too," he replied as she started the engine and drove away.

* * *

Jenna opened her eyes slowly and let the light filter in. She was propped up against some uncomfortable pillows. She looked around in confusion and realized she was still at the hospital.

"What the hell?" she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning," came Alaric's voice from her other side.

She turned her head, surprised at the sound. She smiled at him as she took in his messy appearance. "Apparently not so much for you. You're looking a bit rough," she said with a smile. "How long have I been out anyway?" she said getting serious.

"I think about a week now, "Alaric said scooting closer to the bed.

"What?" she said shooting up out of her seat. "A week! How..I…I passed out. Why did it take me a week to wake up?"

"You had a concussion that they weren't able to get to in time and they put you in a coma until the swelling in your brain went down."

"I can't believe it….hey, what about Elena and Jeremy? Are they ok? What's going on?" she said, moving around like she was going to get out of bed.

"Whoa. Easy. Stay there," he said, patting her shoulders slightly until she was back against the pillows. "Elena and Jeremy are fine. They're worried about you, but they are fine and healed up."

She closed her eyes in relief as she let the news sink in.

"How are you feeling?" Alaric asked as he let her wake up a bit more.

"Well despite the fact that I've been told I was in a coma, I'm doing peachy," she said letting out a sigh. "No but really, besides a bit of a headache, I feel fine. I'm just glad Elena and Jeremy are alright….where are they by the way?" she asked, looking around.

"It's pretty early at the moment , Jenna. They're actually still sleeping," he told her, not letting on that Elena was already up and busy with Bonnie on spell work.

"How do you know they're sleeping?" she asked in confusion.

"They stayed over my house last night. We had a little movie marathon and it was late, so I told them to stay. I felt responsible for them being safe since you're not at home," he told her as he took her hand.

"Rick. You're amazing. Thank you so much," she said, squeezing his hand.

"So what have I missed while I've been all comatose and such?" she asked after a moment.

"Where to start…" he said thinking of all the craziness that had happened around town.

"That bad?" she said, half joking.

"Do you want the good news or bad news first?" he asked.

"Crap," she said, laying her head back on the pillow.

But before Alaric could start telling her all that happened, the doctor came into the room.

"Nice to see you awake. Do you know where you are? And can you recite to me your name and year?" he asked, approaching her and getting his penlight out of his pocket.

"I'm at the hospital and my name is Jenna Sommers. And it's 2010. I have no clue what day of the week yet since I've been out for the count, though," she said sighing as the doctor checked her pupils.

"Correct," he said placing the pen back in his pocket. "But it was a good thing you were knocked out, as you put it, or you wouldn't be talking to me coherently right now. I'd like to run some more tests, however. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask your husband to leave the room," he said with a slight nod to Alaric.

"Oh, no, no. He's not my husband. He's my boyfriend…" she said blushing. Alaric shifted uncomfortably and stood up.

"I"ll let you do your job," he said leaving the room. "Jenna. I'll be out in the waiting room."

"Okay. I await your bad news, good news bit," she said smiling at him.

He smirked at her as he left the room and headed toward the coffee machines. "Man, I need coffee like Damon needs blood," he murmured as he groped around in his pockets for some change.

* * *

Bonnie was tapping her foot impatiently at Elena's doorstep when she heard a car pull into the driveway. "Finally," she said, stepping off the porch and heading to the car.

Elena got out, reaching inside to grab two white and green coffee cups. "Sorry. Sorry," she said, holding out the coffee like a shield. "I got you a toffee nut mocha…."

"You're lucky I like you or I would have to hurt you for being up this early on a weekend, sans coffee…until now," she said snatching the cup out of her hand. "Thanks," she said, smiling and giving Elena a sideways hug.

"It was a long night and I got caught up this morning. Sorry," she said, walking toward the house.

"So are you going to spill or do you expect me to burst with curiosity? What happened?" Bonnie asked as they went inside.

"Well since you said the spell has to be done during sunlight hours, we should probably do that first," Elena said with a smile.

"The story's that long? Is it bad?" she asked concerned.

"Good and bad, I guess….." Elena said shrugging and taking a sip of her coffee.

"Alright. I guess it will have to wait. Let's do this then," Bonnie said, setting down her cup and going through her bag.

"Any room in particular? "Elena asked as Bonnie heaved a large book out of the sack.

"We can probably sit right here near the entrance of the house, but it doesn't matter. The spell applies to entering the house in general," Bonnie said, grabbing some candles and oil out at the same time.

"Thanks again for this, Bonnie. You don't know how much better I'm going to feel knowing that she can't just pop in at any time…no chance that we can make that permanent, can we? Like a never enter ever spell," Elena asked smirking.

"Or even a stake-a-bitch spell…" Bonnie said laughing.

"Any of those a possibility?" Elena asked sarcastically.

"Afraid not," Bonnie said. "Nice thought though. Just try not to invite her in and you'll be fine."

"Are you going to tell Jenna?" Bonnie asked as she set up the candles in a circle on the floor.

"What, that I have an evil vampire twin running around? No….but I don't know what I should do. I don't know if she'll be in more danger not knowing that Katherine's out there," Elena said looking frustrated.

"I hate to even suggest it, but maybe Stefan could compel her or something. Like tell her that she's not allowed to invite you in or something so that when Katherine shows up waiting to be let in, Jenna unconsciously denies her. I don't know," Bonnie said babbling off.

"Bonnie. You're a genius. That's perfect. I don't want her involved in any of this. It's a good way to keep her safe," Elena said happily.

"Don't thank me yet. It was just a random suggestion," she said taking a seat on the ground.

"I'll see what Stefan thinks….Ok, so what do you need me to do?" Elena asked, taking a seat next to Bonnie.

Bonnie took out a box of matched and lit the candles. Then she took the vial of oil she had and created a circle around them.

"Alright. I'm going to recite the incantation. What I need you to do is keep a clear picture of Katherine in your mind the whole time. Nothing else," Bonnie said, flipping to the right page in the book. "When the flame in the oil and candles blow out, the spell is done."

"Is this going to ruin the wood? Jenna might flip if she comes home to burnt wood floors," Elena said jokingly.

"Lucky for you, magic fire burns clean. No evil scorch marks," Bonnie said smiling. "Ready?"

"Ready," Elena said focusing on the candle and conjuring up the image of Katherine in her mind.

Bonnie began her chant: _Kadishmal, Kadishmal. Parad-uce, Parad-uce…_

While chanting, she struck the match and lit the ring of oil. The fire began a slow trek around.

Elena was focusing on Katherine and the last time she saw her. She had looked just like Elena. So much Elena was disturbed by their similarities. She couldn't help making comparisons between them as Bonnie continued chanting.

_Kadishmal, Kadishmal. Parad-uce, Parad-uce….._

Still keeping her in mind, Elena tried to remember if there was any physical difference between them that would be helpful to know, but she couldn't think of one. Suddenly, the candles went out and the burning ring of oil disappeared.

Bonnie stopped chanting and looked pleased with herself. Taking in a deep breath, she smiled at Elena. "It's done," she said happily.

Elena smiled back. "How do we know for sure that it wor….." Elena started, but stopped as she felt a piercing pain explode in her head. She collapsed to the side and began screaming.

**Random, but does anyone recognize Bonnie's spell? It was in a movie from a while back…(yes, I admit I'm super lame for remembering it) Clue? It's Egyptian, and I totally murdered the spelling probably. Too lazy to look it up. Anyways, read review and enjoy. Hope you're liking it. Cheers.**


	10. Deceptions

**Haha. Good guesses by everyone that it was indeed the Mummy. It is a major blast from the past! Glad I'm not alone in remembering random stuff like that, lol. Thanks for the nice reviews and here's the next chapter.**

Tyler signed some release forms and handed them over to the people at the desk. They looked over the papers and told him he was free to go.

He walked out feeling crappy. "Where should I even go?" he thought miserably. He had buried his dad over a week ago and now his mother was dead. "It's my fault…."he said aloud as he got outside the hospital.

"What's your fault?" someone asked him.

He raised his head up from the ground and saw Elena standing there looking at him curiously.

"Hey, Elena….Nothing. I'm just talking to myself. I have a lot going on…" he ended, not wanting to go into it. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm visiting my aunt," she replied sadly.

"Right. I remember hearing something about that from Matt that one night we were there and you were all brought in. How is she?" he asked, glad to have the attention of himself.

"She's still asleep, but hopefully she'll be awake any day now. I hate to cut this short, but I need to go. Visiting hours aren't very long," she said getting closer to him. "It was nice seeing you," she said giving him a pat on the shoulder.

She gave him a calculating look and Tyler could almost swear she took a whiff of him in the way her nose scrunched up.

"Yeah. See you around, Elena," Tyler said confused. He leaned his nose into his shirt and smelled. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I was in the hospital," he muttered as he left.

He cursed under his breath as he realized he didn't even have a car or any means of transportation since he didn't have his money. He turned around fast yelling out for Elena. She paused slowly and turned around.

"Hey, I'm sorry to bug you, but can I use your phone? I kinda don't have any way home and I was thinking of calling Matt," Tyler told her.

She thought about it a moment before digging in her pocket. "Here," she said handing him her phone. "But," she paused thinking things through, "if you don't mind waiting a little longer, I can give you a ride home. I'm just visiting for a bit," she said giving him a small smile.

For some reason or other, Tyler felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he felt uncomfortable. "Thanks for the offer, but I just want to get out of here," he said taking the phone.

"Well if you change your mind, I'm going to be upstairs," she said, going over to stand by the bench to give him privacy.

"Thanks," he said as he dialed Matt's number.

After a few rings, Matt picked up. "Hello?" he asked confused.

"Hey, Matt. It's me Tyler. You ok?" he asked hearing Matt grumbling in the background.

"Yeah. Sorry. I was sleeping and the number threw me off. I didn't recognize it. What's up, man?" he asked.

"I know I've been pretty crappy to you, but I could really use a big favor…" Tyler began.

"What is it?"

"I just was released from the hospital and I don't have any way to go anywhere. I had to borrow Elena's phone just to give you a call," he said sounding depressed.

"Elena's phone? "Matt asked confused. "I didn't know she had a new number. Anyway, give me five minutes and I'll be right there," Matt said. Tyler heard movement as if Matt was hurriedly getting dressed.

"Thanks so much. You don't know how much this helps," Tyler said.

"No sweat. See you in the front?" Matt questioned.

"Yeah. I'll be here," Tyler said.

Matt said goodbye and Tyler closed the phone. He walked back over to Elena, who had her back turned to him. "Here, Elena. Thanks again."

"No problem," she said. She seemed a bit angry, but Tyler couldn't be sure. "I'll see you around," she said hurrying into the hospital.

Tyler headed toward the front of the hospital to wait for Matt with nothing but his overwhelming guilt and sadness to keep him company.

* * *

Damon drove down Elena's street and was relieved to find her car in the driveway. He wasn't sure if he should try Rick's first or head somewhere else. He would have felt too Stefan-like to call her and ask her where she was going to be.

He parked on the street and let out a groan of annoyance when he saw Bonnie's car parked next to Elena's. He hadn't paid attention to that before. If he would have seen it, he would have driven away. "So not in the mood to deal with the witch right now," Damon thought, debating whether to walk back to his car or go inside.

His decision was made up when he heard loud screaming that was unmistakably Elena's coming from inside. He raced to the door and flung it open. When he entered, he saw Bonnie kneeling next to scattered candles and Elena's body on the floor.

"What did you do?" Damon asked as he approached them. Elena's eyes were clamped shut as if she was in deep pain and she was pale white. One hand was grasping her abdomen while the other was clutching her head.

"I don't know…I did everything right," Bonnie said looking though her book. "I don't understand….Elena. I'm so sorry…What can I do?"

"What was your spell about?" Damon asked kneeling beside them and trying to calm Elena down. He looked on helplessly as she writhed about and moaned in pain.

"It was an un-inviation spell for the house so that Katherine couldn't enter," Bonnie said, flipping through the pages frantically trying to find something to help her out. "Elena. Can you tell me what hurts or anything I can use to help you?"

"I…..I… nnneeed…." But she couldn't get more out before she let out another scream and started to try move.

"Bonnie. Find something fast," Damon said, reaching for Elena and holding her close. "Elena. I need you to open your eyes. I want to try to compel you and see if it works…." He thought that if he could just try to make her feel better, it would give them time to figure things out.

She struggled slowly to open her eyes and keep them open. But she couldn't hold them open long enough before she clamped them shut again and began shaking. Damon held her tight.

"Damn it, Bonnie. Why were you messing with magic when you're not even a practiced witch. You're like a child playing with matches," Damon hissed angrily.

"Yelling at me isn't going to help Elena, Damon. Just stop," she said, still trying to find answers in the book.

"Go over what you did with the spell. See what could have gone wrong," Damon asked, looking down at a shaking Elena and stroking the hair away from her sweaty face.

"I lit the candles and drew a circle of oil around them. Then I told Elena to hold an image of Katherine in her mind and I lit the oil. I recited the incantation and knew the spell was done when the flames went out," Bonnie said hurriedly. "It's the right spell I know it. Its only job is to keep Katherine out of this house."

"You sure that's the….." but he stopped talking as he smelled blood in the air. He looked down worriedly and saw a small trickle of it coming from Elena's nose.

"Out….please…..I…" Elena moaned weakly.

Something clicked in Damon's mind as he went over Bonnie's words…. "to keep her out of the house…"Damon said out loud.

Damon secured Elena in his arms and in seconds, was up and out of the door.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie yelled as she jumped up and followed.

* * *

"So what happened?" Isobel asked angrily.

Cherie was lying collapsed on the loveseat. She had calculated sunrise a little too late and ended up getting scorched minutes before she made it back. She was moaning a bit as her skin healed until she got a death look from Isobel that silenced her and made her push aside her discomfort.

"Did someone get there or did the sun come up before anything happened" Isobel pressed.

"No. I saw Stefan approach the window where Elena and Jeremy were sleeping. He opened it up and slipped in. You said I could go when that happened so I left…just a little too late," Cherie said, poking at her charred arm.

"And no word from Frank?" Isobel asked, pacing the room.

"No. I made sure not to contact him and I didn't hear anything either," she said.

"Something's wrong then," Isobel said angrily. "I'm going to have to go search him out and see if maybe he's sticking indoors."

Isobel closed her eyes and thought about her options. She didn't know if Katherine would be out wandering around. She pondered her odds of running into her. She debated giving Cherie her necklace so that she could go and find him herself.

"You're a bit slow…" she thought aloud. "You know what, I'll give him until sunset to come back. I'm not risking my location to find him."

"You mean you're not risking your ass to go find out news on the Salvatore/ Katherine triangle," A voice drawled sleepily from the sofa. "Or would it be a square now that Elena is involved…Anyway, you're just a scared little girl where Katherine's involved."

"That's it. I'm just so scared of everything," she said approaching the couch. "I love staying hidden and watch the world go by while bitches like Katherine roam around doing as they please," she said striking her hand out and pressing down hard on exposed neck.

"Now you listen, and you listen hard. I do what I want, when I want. I don't care about consequences. I care about my life, and I care about living. So yes, I do care about if Katherine decides to attack," she said squeezing harder. "You call me a coward again, and I'll rip your throat out."

She waited for the coughs to subside before she started up again. "I'm going out. I need a good meal anyways….I think I'll take a chance and sniff out Frank, but not too hard. He's not worth it."

"Do you think something happened to him?" Cherie asked a bit worried.

"With a large brain like his? No…" Isobel said sarcastically. "For all our sakes, I hope he wasn't discovered."

"I have one last job for you, Cherie," she said, grabbing her purse off the table.

Cherie looked out the window worriedly.

"No, you're not going anywhere," Isobel said in response to her glance. "I just need you to keep an eye on our guest until I get back," she said with a pointed glance to the couch.

"Oh I'm a guest now? That's nice to know…"

She smiled slightly and looked at Cherie seriously. "You can use force or weapons if necessary," she said with a final glance around the room.

Stepping out into the sun, she took a deep breath and latched onto Frank's faded scent in the wind.

"Let's see where you ended up," she said, gathering her hair up and securing it into a ponytail before she sped off.

**Hope you're enjoying the ride. Read and review. Cheers. OH and p.s. Should I end the story soon and start up another story sep so that I don't have a million chapters? This story won't end or anything, it would just extend and go whereever I leave this off at; not two separate stories. I'm still new to how all thie works. So 2 things: Review first, please, and opinion on if I should split story up. Thanks :)**


	11. Jenna

**Thanks for the responses and sorry this chapter is a tad shorter than usual. I actually am ahead by like, 4 chapters :) So I wanted to post a little something in the time being! And p.s. don't be alarmed if the chapters all of a sudden decrease. Instead of 25 I shrank it to 11. All chapters are here, but it's 3 in one chapter. So chapters 1-7 contain 21 chapters. Hope that's not confusing. I left the last three alone so if people need to catch up easier. Anyways, here's the chapter now.**

Jenna smiled as she saw Elena came into the room. "I was just asking Rick about you," she said, holding her arms out for a hug

She got close to the bed and gave Jenna a small hug. "Hey! How are you feeling?" she said somewhat surprised. "I didn't expect you to be up yet!"

"Yeah. I didn't expect to be out for a week either," Jenna said shaking her head. "But I guess I was good enough to wake up or something. The doc took some blood and ran some tests and if they come out all positive, hopefully I can come home," she said smiling.

"That's great," Elena said taking a seat near the bed. "I'm sure everything will end up ok…Did you say Rick was here?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. He just left to go get some coffee. He's looking tired…How was movie night last night, by the way? I'm so glad that you guys had someone looking out for you," she said smiling.

Elena sighed and shook her head. "This isn't going to work," she said looking at Jenna.

"What are you talking about?" Jenna asked.

"You were supposed to be sleeping….I don't have the patience for this small talk," she said glaring at Jenna.

Jenna was about to respond, but she was interrupted.

"I need you to just fall asleep," Elena said as her eyes turned dark.

Jenna stared at her a moment before she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Katherine smiled, reveling in the silence. "That was annoying," she muttered to herself. She wondered how long she had to wait for the history teacher to arrive. Her patience was rewarded 10 minutes later when he walked into the room.

"I hate vending machines," he said as he entered the room. He closed his mouth when he saw Jenna was sleeping and noticed Katherine sitting in the chair.

"Elena? I thought you were out with Stefan," he said confused as he set down his coffee cup on the table.

"We decided to cut it short so that I could just leave and come visit," she replied.

He felt that something was off, but he couldn't place it. Looking at her closely to see if anything was off, he didn't notice anything physically, but there was something in her glance that had him second guessing her identity. Then he remembered that she should have been with Bonnie around this time to keep out…."Katherine," he thought to himself.

"Should I go along with it or play dumb?" he thought, continuing his train of thought. He silently himself for not carrying any vervain darts in his bag. He decided it was better to get it over with and see what Katherine was planning.

"So you went to breakfast with Stefan and came here? What about Bonnie?" he asked, trying to figure things out.

"I was hoping Jenna would be awake, so I wanted to come here sooner rather than later," she replied. "And Bonnie's fine. Doing homework …. Any change with her?" she asked, scanning Rick and changing the direction of the conversation.

"She was awake a bit ago. She's probably just tired…Hey," he started, trying to see what reaction he would get since he was almost positive this was Katherine. "So how did Stefan's meeting with that bitch go?"

The change in her face was immediate if not immediately noticeable. Her face changed from pleasant, to angry, to calm in seconds. Rick took that to mean that he was right: Elena was at her house and he was sitting with Stefan and Damon's maker.

"Stefan said that they just chatted about old times," she answered with a calculating glance.

"I'm surprised they didn't stake her or something," Rick replied. "She certainly deserves it."

"You know, Rick. I don't like playing games," she said with a snarl. "So let's stop this tango. I'm not amused…"

"How'd you guess I figured you out," Rick asked with narrowed eyes.

"If you've lived as long as I have, you know when people are playing you to get a reaction or….when they figure out your true intentions," Katherine said with a grin.

"And that is?" Rick asked, calculating what chance, if any, he had of beating Katherine.

"I assume you're just trying to keep this puny human safe, so you're trying to see what I'm up to," Katherine said with a smile as she stood up.

"You know what happens when you assume," Rick said nonchalantly as he stood in response to her movement.

"You make and ass out of you, and me…al out of your girlfriend," she said, going in close to Jenna's neck and taking a whiff. "She smells delicious by the way," she said as her eyes turned red and the veins protruded from under her eyes.

* * *

Jeremy woke up and stretched him arms. He shook his head as he took in Alaric's messy room. Spotting a note on the bed, he got up and grabbed the paper. He shrugged his shoulders when he was done. He vaguely remembered being woken up by Rick to tell him that Elena was out and that he was going to the hospital. But he was half asleep at the time.

He sat in bed for a bit going over all the information in his head from the night before. The one's that stuck out were that Tyler was a werewolf, Elena's mom was a vampire, her dad was Uncle John-whose body was missing-and that Damon had been the one to turn Isobel.

He had argued with Elena how messed up it was that she could still talk to Damon after turning his mom and all the other things he had done. Elena had wanted Jeremy to trust her again, so she started the story from the beginning and told him of both of the brothers' ups and downs.

Jeremy thought that even though Damon was an ass, he at least tried sometimes to be decent—like when he had tried to help him with Anna. But after the other stories Elena had told him, he wasn't sure if he could really trust Damon.

Sighing, he swiped his hand over his head at the thought of Anna. Lately he was trying hard to push his feelings to the back. He figured that if he really felt everything he was supposed to, he might explode. But at that moment, he couldn't help but to feel alone. He had lost many friends, neglected any he used to have, and his life now seemed to involve the supernatural. He felt like he had no normalcy to fall back on.

"I need to get a job or something," he muttered as he got up and started rifling through his bag for clothes. He thought that maybe if he had something to occupy his time with, he could stop feeling sorry for himself.

Once he was dressed, he looked over at the paper on the bed. "I should go see Jenna," he thought, getting his shoes on. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen and saw another note sitting on the counter.

Curious he went over to it and read it: _Jeremy. I know you don't have that vervain bracelet anymore, so here's a sprig to keep in your pocket for the time being. Don't go anywhere without it. If you see Elena, give her one too if she doesn't already have any on her. See you later. Alaric._

Jeremy grabbed the sprigs, sniffed them, and shoved them in his pants pocket. He locked the door behind him as he stepped out into the sun.

He started a slow walk to the hospital. It wasn't too far away, but he was in no rush to get there either. When he finally reached the front of the hospital, he was surprised to run into Tyler.

"Hey," Tyler nodded at him.

Jeremy didn't know how to react now that he knew what Tyler was…and what Tyler may have done. "Hey…what are you doing here?"

"I was attacked last night and had to get stitched up. They just released me and I'm waiting on my ride," Tyler said looking awkward.

"Oh," Jeremy said confused. "I didn't know that. The last thing I heard on the news was about your mom…I'm sorry about that," he added looking Tyler over to gauge his reaction.

"Thanks…I know you probably understand what I'm going through… Tyler asked, glancing around to see if Matt was there yet.

"I understand, and if you want to talk about it, I'll listen," Jeremy said, not sure if he really meant it. Tyler gave him a bit of the creeps now that he knew everything.

"Yeah…Thanks, but I got it under control," Tyler said stiffly, done with the conversation.

"If you say so," Jeremy said a little too harshly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tyler asked angrily.

"Nothing," Jeremy replied, cursing himself for setting Tyler off. "I just meant that everyone's first response is that they're fine and that they're dealing with it, when it's usually not the case."

"What are you a shrink?" Tyler asked sarcastically. "Look, I don't mean anything by it. I'm just tired and I want to head home," Tyler said changing his tone at the look on Jeremy's face.

"I understand. I have to go anyway," Jeremy said with a nod toward the front doors.

"You here to visit Jenna too, then?" Tyler asked.

"How'd you know?" Jeremy asked confused.

"Elena was here a while ago. I had to borrow her phone. She's probably upstairs by now…what's wrong?" he asked when he saw Jeremy scrunch up his brows in confusion.

"I just didn't think Elena was going to be here yet?" Jeremy said. "I guess she changed plans…See you around," Jeremy said walking toward the doors.

Just as he was heading in, he heard his cell phone go off. He opened it to see that it was a text message from Elena.

**This is Damon. You need to come home. Elena needs your help.**

Jeremy stared at the message for a second. "If Elena's home, then that means….Katherine's upstairs with Jenna," he thought to himself fearfully.

Katherine's words echoed in his mind: _Mess this up and I end your life, and turn your Aunt into dinner, got it__…."_ He shook it off like a bad dream and was stuck on what he should do. Deciding that Elena was at least with Damon while Jenna was unprotected, he sent Damon a quick text message and raced inside.

**Damon. Katherine's at hospital pretending to be Elena. I have to check on Jenna. Be there when I can.**

**:) Review and enjoy. Cheers.**


	12. Compromises

"It would be so easy to kill her right now," Katherine snarled as she brushed her hand against Jenna's neck.

"You touch her again and so help me I'll…"

"You'll what? Beat me up with your fists? You're unarmed, unprepared, and let's face it, I have the upper hand here," Katherine said smiling at him.

"What do you want, Katherine?" Rick said through gritted teeth.

"Easy enough, I just want your ring. You give it to me and I leave peacefully," she said with a pointed look to his hand.

"We both know the moment I take it off is the moment you kill me," Rick said angrily.

"Let's put it this way, then," Katherine said, moving away from Jenna and heading to Rick. "She doesn't have any magic ring. So you or her? Your choice. But I will give my word that I won't kill you…at least not today," she said.

Rick thought it over. It was really a lose- lose situation. If he didn't give her the ring, then he'd harm Jenna. If he did, he risked the possibility of her killing both of them.

At that moment, they were both interrupted by the arrival of the doctor. Katherine glanced at him with an evil glance before sitting back in the chair.

"Sorry to interrupt," the doctor said questioningly, seeing their angry faces. "I wanted to talk to Miss Sommers and talk about her release…but I see she's asleep at the moment…"

"She only just dozed off, I'll wake her," Rick said, talking fast. "Jenna?" he said, shaking her shoulder.

"Let her rest," Katherine protested, but Jenna slowly woke up.

"Hey," she said looking around. "I was tired. Sorry I fell asleep on you, Elena."

The doctor started in before anyone else could talk. "I need to talk to you about the tests, Miss Sommers. I need you both to wait outside if you could."

"Not a problem. Come on Elena," Rick said with a wry look at Katherine.

Katherine stood there a moment debating her options. She could either compel the doctor to leave and have Jenna pass out again, or she could leave the room. If she left, she risked the opportunity to get the ring.

"Actually, doctor" she said, making up her mind. "I think you should leave the room and let us finish talking," she said with command in her voice.

He nodded his head and left the room. Jenna looked at Elena confused. "What was that about?"

She turned to start on Jenna when Rick came around and grabbed her hard by the wrist. She felt her skin burn as she saw what looked like some plant sitting in the palm of his hand. "Vervain," she thought angrily.

"We need to leave," he said pointedly. "Let her wake up. We'll finish our conversation outside."

Katherine let out a hiss as she wrestled out of his grasp. "You need to stop breathing right now," she said looking into Jenna's eyes.

Rick looked over at Jenna and saw that she had indeed stopped breathing and was looking at them fearfully.

"Stop," he yelled at Katherine.

"Give me the ring and I'll stop," she said staring at him

Rick looked from Jenna to Katherine and made up his mind. "Undo your compulsion and I promise to hand it over to you," Rick said, turning pale as he saw Jenna start to pass out.

Katherine thought about it a moment and stepped closer to Jenna. "Resume breathing like normal," she said sounding bored. "And just pass out and forget any of this happened. You annoy me," she ended.

Rick let out a sigh of relief as Jenna's breathing resumed and she went to sleep. Katherine held out her hand impatiently with a look of triumph in her eyes.

He was about to take the ring off when Jeremy rushed into the room.

* * *

Damon brought Elena outside to the porch and sat down on the bench, cradling her close to his chest. He looked down to see if there was any change. At the same time, Bonnie rushed out of the house, looking around to see where he had gone.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked worriedly. "We have to get some help? We need to…"

"Could you just shut up for five minutes?" Damon said annoyed.

Bonnie shut her mouth and got closer to check on Elena.

They both immediately noticed a difference. Elena was only shaking slightly and was no longer gripping her head or clamping her eyes shut in pain.

"Elena?" Bonnie asked hesitantly.

Elena slowly opened her eyes and gasped. She looked around and let out a huge breath; as if she was holding it the entire town. She then turned her head into Damon's chest and began sobbing in fits of hysterics; her breath coming out in pants.

Damon looked at Bonnie in shock at Elena's reaction. He let her cry for a minute before he brought his hand down and patted her head. "She might need some water….and tissues," he said as an afterthough as he looked over at Bonnie.

Bonnie nodded her head and ran into the house.

"Hey hey, now. I just had this shirt dry cleaned," he said sarcastically, trying to calm her down. "You're going to be ok," he said seriously, still patting her head.

Elena slowly turned her head away and looked up at Damon. If he still had a heart, it would have melted at the sight of her tear stained cheeks and sad eyes. "Sorry," she said hoarsely.

"Kidding," he said looking at her with concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?"

Bonnie came out of the house a moment later with a glass of water and a roll of toilet paper.

Elena nodded her head and moved so that she was sitting next to Damon instead of on his lap. Though it was the last thing he wanted to do, Damon helped her move over. Bonnie handed her the tissues and water carefully, still watching her to make sure she was ok. Elena took a sip and put both the glass and tissues on the floor.

"I guess... It was just so painful. I thought I was going to be ripped apart from the inside," Elena said sniffling. "Everything was fine and then my head started throbbing and I had this gut wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach…..and…"

But she stopped talking as she suddenly got up. Damon and Bonnie looked at her cautiously, wondering what she was doing, when she leaned over the porch and began puking.

"I didn't think I had that effect on most people," Damon said to Bonnie. She looked at him and narrowed her eyes at him.

When Elena was done, she wobbled back down on the seat.

"But the weirdest thing…" she continued after she drank some water,"was this overwhelming feeling…this need to get out of the house…" she said, thinking back to what had happened. She flinched thinking of the excruciating pain.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I don't know why it went like that," Bonnie said, reaching over to grasp Elena's hand.

"You can't even guess?" Damon asked. "It's easy."

"Care to enlighten us, then?" Bonnie asked exasperated.

"You said all Elena had to do was picture Katherine. I don't think it's hard to assume that Elena pictured herself at the same time…If you had a twin, wouldn't you compare yourself unconsciously?" he said with a superior look to Bonnie.

"I did…." Elena said after a moment. "I pictured the last time I saw Katherine, and then I was thinking about if I remembered anything that would make us different so that we wouldn't be confused….."

"So that's why you took Elena out of the house," Bonnie said, putting things together. "You realized she pictured herself and that the spell was pushing her out of the house…"

"More like ripping me apart," Elena said with a shiver. "I felt compelled to leave, but the pain made me stay there…"

"Is that what happens when you try to enter a house?" Bonnie asked, looking at Damon questioningly.

"No…I physically can't even step foot inside," he responded.

"I bet that's what happens when you're brought in unconsciously or something," Elena mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Damon asked, looking Elena over and noticing she still looked pale.

"Like, if you were knocked out and brought into a house. I mean, it's all a mental barrier; there's no shield on a house, right? So I think when you would wake up, it beats you up until you leave," she ended, looking at Bonnie for confirmation.

"Maybe….You want to test it out, Damon?" Bonnie said with a wicked grin.

"I'll pass on that one. We can always try Stefan though," he said standing up. "But Elena's going to have a problem, now."

"Oh," Bonnie said, realizing what he meant.

"What?" Elena asked looking between them.

"You have to be invited into your own house," Damon said shaking his head and smiling.

"Really?" Elena asked.

"Try to get in. See what happens," Damon told her with a wave to the door.

She scrunched up her eyebrows and got up. She hesitated near the front door, afraid that she would go through the same pain. Taking a deep breath, she went to walk inside.

* * *

Sherriff Forbes had a list made out on her desk of the items she thought to be missing. What disturbed her most was that they were nothing of intrinsic value, but important town documents—Founder's journals.

Also missing was the reports she had from the night of the Founder's Day fire and the notebook she had speculating about everything that had gone down in the town—from vampires to werewolves. She shook her head angrily and tried to come up with suspects.

"Who would want this stuff and who would even know where to look?" she asked aloud.

She was still pondering when she heard a car pull up in the driveway. A few minutes later, the front door opened cautiously. "Mom?" came Caroline's voice hesitantly.

"In the den," Lizz replied.

Caroline shut the door and walked into the room, looking around and noticing things were more or less cleaned up.

"I don't think I've ever seen you clean something that fast," Caroline said jokingly.

"And I don't think I told you to come home, yet," Lizz said with slight irritation. "Sorry. I'm just stressed out," she said after a minute, noticing Caroline's face drop.

"It's ok… So what was taken then?" Caroline asked, sitting down in one of the armchairs.

"Random stuff from what I can tell. Whoever broke in didn't stay long enough to take anything valuable," she said, not wanting to let Caroline in on what was taken.

"Why did they rip up the furniture and other things like that. They really went to town," Caroline said shaking her head.

"I don't know. Just trying to be destructive. It happens in break-in situations….So what brings you home anyway, Caroline? I did tell you to wait for me to call you," she said sternly.

"Matt had to go to the hospital to go give Tyler a ride home. He felt bad since Tyler doesn't really have anyone right now," Caroline said.

"They released Tyler already?" Lizz asked surprised. "I didn't know that…I wanted to question him before he left."

"Well he doesn't have anything better to do, I think you can just go to his house and ask him. What? He doesn't," she said in response to her mom's look.

"He's going to need a lot of help," she told Caroline. "You don't know how much," she thought to herself.

"And knowing Matt, he'll be there for him, even if he gets pushed around," Caroline said sighing.

Lizz didn't like the idea that Tyler was out there and could get violent at any moment.

"Listen. I'm going to go and meet up with Tyler," she told Caroline. "Just stay out of trouble, ok?"

"Whatever. I'm going to shower. I totally smell like wet dog and stale chips," she said getting up. "Matt's couch," she said at the look of confusion on her mom's face.

"Call me if you need anything," she said, avoiding asking her if they did anything on said couch.

Lizz went outside and got into her car, hoping that the daytime was safe enough to approach Tyler.

**Hope you're enjoying it so far. Let me know if it gets too boring or if I'm not giving enough attention to certain characters. And be honest, I'm all for constructive criticism. Reviews are great as well. Cheers.**


	13. The Ring

Elena found that she couldn't walk through the doors. She pushed and pushed, but couldn't get inside.

"That's weird," she said, turning to Damon. "The feeling like I'm not allowed…."

"Join the club," he said, crossing his arms.

She walked back over to the bench and sat down. Bonnie rushed over and sat down before Damon had the chance. She gave him a superior look as she put her arm around Elena with a "I'm her best friend, back off' glare.

Damon shook his head and leaned against the porch.

"So can you invite me into my house, then, Bonnie?" Elena asked after a moment.

Damon was the first to respond. "She has no claim to this house, so no. The only ones who can do that are Jenna and Jeremy."

"I guess I should text him. I don't feel like talking to him right now," she said, standing up and reaching into her pocket. "Ugh. My phone's in the house…"

"On it," Damon said sighing. Within seconds he was back outside, handing Elena her phone.

She went to text him, but found that her hands were too shaky. She dropped the phone as she was bringing up Jeremy's name.

Damon caught it before it hit the ground and looked at her worriedly. "I'm still a bit shaken up, I guess. Can you text him and tell him to come home? But don't freak him out," she said looking at him seriously.

"Where' s the fun in that ?" Damon replied as he sent out a text message.

"I don't know if the spell worked on Katherine too," Bonnie said after a minute. "I mean, if Elena pictured both of them, I'm not sure if it works for two people…"

"I hope it works against her too," Elena said sighing and leaning her head on Bonnie.

"We could do the spell again…meaning me and Damon," she said hurriedly, noticing Elena's panicked look.

"I've had enough of your Sabrina the Teenage witch routine for the day. I say that if Elena pictured them both, then it works on her too," Damon said decidedly.

"It's something I don't really want to test out, though," Elena said looking at Damon hopefully.

He thought about it for a moment, but the silence was interrupted by Elena's phone going off.

Damon opened it. "It's from Jeremy….."he said, his face dropping as he read the message.

"What….?" Elena asked worriedly.

"Katherine's at the hospital….and he's going after her," he said exasperated.

"Let's go!" Elena yelled out, running for her car.

Damon grabbed her by the wrist before she got further. "You stay here with your witch friend. I'll handle it. The last thing I need is to have 3 Gilberts to watch out for," he said seriously.

Before Elena could argue, he placed a kiss on her cheek, gave her one final look, and rushed off.

"What was that?" Bonnie asked after he was gone.

Elena touched her cheek in shock and shook her head. "I don't know….but we have to get to that hospital," she said, grabbing Bonnie's hand and heading to the car.

* * *

Caroline glanced around the room one more time before she headed to the shower. She stopped when she saw the notepad on the desk. Walking over, she bent down to read it and saw that it was a list that included things like founder's journals and notebook with an asterisk next to it.

"Is this some sort of inventory of missing things?" Caroline thought to herself. She shook her head not understanding the importance and headed to the shower.

But before she reached the top of the stairs, the doorbell rang. Caroline closed her eye and let out a sigh of frustration. She reluctantly walked back down and answered the door. She was surprised to see Stefan at the door with a weird expression on his face.

"Hey Stefan," she said confused, watching his face as he seemed to smell the air and look around the house.

"I know, I need a shower. I smell like a dog," she said to break the silence.

"No. You're fine, Caroline," Stefan said, bringing his gaze back to hers. "Sorry. I'm being rude. How are you?"

"Fine," she said waving her bandaged arm. "I have to shower with a shopping bag over by arm so I don't ruin the stitches, so that should be fun…but otherwise, I'm dealing with being mauled and robbed…..What are you doing here?"

"Robbed?" he asked thrown off guard.

"Yeah. Someone decided to break into the house and rip things up and maybe steal something. I'm not really sure," Caroline said shaking her head.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea," Stefan said looking past her into the house to see for himself, but it looked cleaned up. "I came here actually to talk to your mom."

"Oh. You just missed her. She's heading to Tyler's house to get his statement on last night. She'll be back later if you want to try back. Is everything alright?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah…I just had some questions for her on….the animal running around town," Stefan said, making it up as he went along. "Was Tyler home last night when everything happened, then?" Stefan asked changing the subject.

"I don't think I've ever heard you ask so many questions!" Caroline commented looking at Stefan curiously. "Whatever. But to answer your question, no. Tyler wasn't home. He was out somewhere else also being attacked by an animal. This town is becoming some animal freak-show," Caroline complained.

"I mean seriously. Did some circus lose its rabid, mutant sideshow dogs or something?" she said smiling at Stefan.

Stefan wanted to ask her more, but knew he already seemed too suspicious. "It is pretty random," he said agreeing with Caroline.

"Totally. Hey, so if you don't mind, I'm going to go. I feel disgusting. I'll tell my mom you stopped by," she told him.

"Thanks, Caroline. Have a good day," Stefan said.

"You too," she said closing the door.

Stefan waited until she closed the door to begin analyzing her house. It smelled off. There was a scent lingering in the air similar to some animal smell mixed with blood. If he didn't know any better, he would say there was a wolf around. But he knew what the smell meant—that the werewolf had been to Caroline's house.

* * *

Jeremy looked at Alaric and Katherine with confusion. They were really close together and she looked like she was about to attack and he looked like he was about to do something he was going to regret.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked a bit out of breath from rushing to the room.

Katherine looked from Alaric to Jeremy a moment for settling her eyes on Jeremy's. Jeremy tensed, ready to fight if he had to, but it wasn't necessary.

"Rick here was just going to let me see his ring and I was going to be on my way," Katherine said, still staring at Jeremy.

Jeremy shot a questioning glance to Rick. "Why would you do that?"

But Rick closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. "It's necessary. I only ask that I give it to you outside of the hospital, away from Jenna and Jeremy," he said getting Katherine's attention away from Jeremy's. "I don't trust you to just walk away."

"Jeremy comes too," Katherine decided after a moment. "You always need leverage, Rick. Don't confuse my young looks for young stupidity," she said with a nod.

"No..that's," Rick began.

"I'll go…I don't want her near Jenna," Jeremy said earnestly. "Let's go," he said leaving the room.

"I'd say ladies first, but I don't really see the point," Rick said, waving Katherine ahead.

"No wonder Isobel left you," Katherine said with a smirk as she left after Jeremy, Rick trailing behind.

Taking the stairs to head out to the back parking lot, they descended the stairs at a fast rate. They weren't surprised to see Katherine standing outside as they opened the door.

"I've been more than patient enough now. So hand it over," Katherine said, getting in Rick's face.

"Why do you want it so bad anyway?" Jeremy asked while he looked around for anything he could use as a weapon.

"It belonged to a friend of mine, and I'd like to have it," Katherine said impatiently.

Rick started sliding off the ring and Jeremy started yelling at him.

"You're just going to give up?" he yelled at him. "Fight for it. Do something. You can't just…"

Katherine shot glance one angry look before rushing at Jeremy, grabbing him by the neck and holding him in the air. "You need to leave. You're trying my patience," she said with command.

"No," Jeremy said struggling. Rick was shouting something at them, but Jeremy wasn't listening. Instead, he was remembering the vervain in his pocket. Thinking fast, he grabbed one of the sprigs and shoved it into Katherine's open mouth.

He was promptly dropped to the ground as Katherine started screaming and spitting the leaves out of her mouth.

Jeremy didn't have time to do anything more before Rick grabbed him and shoved him away from the parking lot. "Get somewhere safe," Rick told him hurriedly.

He was about to protest, but saw the veins protruding under Katherine's red eyes as she was recovering from the vervain and decided to take Rick's advice if only to get help.

He had only ran about 30 seconds before he was grabbed roughly from behind and thrown against a car. Shaking his head painfully, he stared up to see Katherine bearing down on him.

Rick took the opportunity to shout at her before she hurt Jeremy any more.

"Katherine. The ring is off. I will give it to you. Enough," Rick said rushing to them.

But he was stopped when there was a blur of movement and Damon appeared out of nowhere.

"Put that back on. I need my partner in crime here alive," he told Rick seriously and tossing him a tree branch. "It's all I could do on such short notice," he said in response to Rick's questioning look.

"How is it you always find a way to run into me," Katherine said, half surprised and half angry. She gave Jeremy one final glance, resisting the allure of the blood coming from his leg, before walking closer to Damon.

"Must be your charming and magnetic personality," Damon responded sarcastically.

"As much as I love flirting with you Damon, I'm too close to getting my way now to just leave. Now hand it over, Rick," she said angrily.

"That's not going to happen, Katherine," Damon said, staying Rick's hand.

"Oh it's so going to happen." Before Damon could react, Katherine grabbed Jeremy off of the ground and held him in a head lock. "All I need to do is apply a little pressure," she said squeezing a bit. Jeremy began gasping and struggling.

"Damon. There's no other way," Rick said, stepping around Damon and heading to Katherine. Damon wanted to protest, but Rick was right.

Waiting until Katherine unceremoniously dropped Jeremy to the ground, Alaric took the ring off and handed it to Katherine.

"See. Was that so hard?" she asked with a gleam of triumph in her eyes.

"You got what you came for, Katherine, " Damon said angrily. "Now either go peacefully, or I see how far I can shove this tree branch up your…."

"Don't tease me," she said with a grin toward Damon. She gave a disgusted look at Jeremy and Rick before she turned her back, deciding to leave. Damon rushed over to Jeremy to make sure he was ok.

"Oh, one more thing," she said, turning around to face Rick. In a blink of an eye, she grabbed him by the arm and twisted it until she heard the sound of bone breaking. Rick screamed out in pain as he felt it pierce his skin. "Consider yourself lucky," she said as she rushed out of the parking lot.

"Shit," Rick yelled out as he grasped his arm in pain. "Where the hell were you on that one," he managed to mutter angrily at Damon.

"I was a little more worried about the bleeding hero at the time, and…" but Damon's voice was cut off by the close sound of car tires screeching loudly to a halt, followed by the crunching sound of windshield being broken.

**I'd love reviews, please. I see all these story alerts but no reviews. And lately reviews have been scarse. Anyways, hope you like the story so far. Cheers!**


	14. OOPS: Author's Note

So it's been brought to my attention that it's hard for followers to review because I went back and combined them all in tidy packages of three chapters to one. As such, there are already reviews listed for the older chapters. So even though it's a new chapter 13, your old reviews for 13 are still here. So. It's totally my bad for the error. Messages are welcome in the meantime if it's not too much trouble. OR if you cold comment anonymously, that works too. Thanks and sorry that I'm a dunce


	15. Accidents Happen

"Thanks again for the ride," Tyler said as Matt drove up the road to the house.

"What are friends for?" Matt replied. "Are you sure you want to be here right now?" he said looking around as they approached the house. "Because you can always crash at my place."

"No. I should be here. I just need something familiar to fall back on right now," Tyler said shaking his head.

As Matt approached the house, he noticed two silver mini coops parked in Tyler's driveway. "Who's here?" he asked Tyler curiously.

Tyler leaned his head back on the car seat and let out an exasperated groan. "It's the terror twins," he said shaking his head. "Nice of them to show up now," he said angrily.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked confused.

"They never showed for my dad's funereal. And now my mom dies and poof, they came running…I bet they want money, "he said sounding disgusted.

"My offer still stands if you want to come over," Matt said after an awkward moment of silence.

"They just bug me to no end. But I guess some family is better than no family," he said, opening the car door.

"I'm sure you will work it out," Matt said, trying to remain positive.

"Ha….Well I'll see you later then, man," Tyler said.

"Take care of yourself," Matt replied before he drove away.

Tyler approached the house slowly, trying to see if he could conjure up any memories from the night before. Nothing came to him, but his thoughts were interrupted by the doors to the mansion opening up, revealing a tall brunette with blue eyes staring at him intently.

"You've gotten taller," she commented as Tyler got closer to the doors.

"What, I was like, three or so years younger the last time you saw me, Chloe?" Tyler asked frowning.

Her face dropped at his response. "I was studying abroad, I couldn't come," she said trying to defend herself. She cocked her head to the side and then held her arms out.

Tyler stared at her for a moment before his eyes finally softened and he hugged her. Shortly after, they released and looked each other over.

"You look like, hell Tyler," she said shaking her head.

"I've had a lot to deal with, but you wouldn't know, would you? You never even came for dad's funeral."

"I already told you I was…." She started.

"Why does there have to be an excuse when it comes to your family, Chloe," Tyler started on her angrily.

"Settle down brother," came a voice from inside the doorway. Tyler glanced up to see a tall, muscular man with wavy brown hair and eyes that matched his sister's.

"Wow, Marius, I didn't even expect to ever have you show up here again," Tyler said turning his attention away from Chloe.

"It's Marius now? Why so formal?" he said shaking his head. "Someone has to make sure you don't mess up," he said with a forced smile. "Now let's get inside and talk family and business."

He didn't wait for a response before he turned away and headed inside. Chloe gave Tyler a pointed look and followed.

"Rio's only being practical, so don't look all judgmental that he doesn't care," Chloe said over her shoulder. "Cut him some slack."

"I'd rather have my stitches taken out," Tyler muttered as he went inside the house, closing the doors behind him.

They walked into the living room, but none of them felt the need to sit down just yet. Rio leaned against the piano and Chloe leaned her back up against the window. Tyler stood at the back of the couch staring at them.

He hadn't seen them in such a long time, but they looked even older than he'd seen them before. Chloe looked worn out with dark circles under her eyes and she looked small and tired. Rio, on the other hand, was all bulked up and seemed to ooze confidence and what Tyler could only describe as "prick attitude."

He was looking at Chloe again when he thought he caught movement outside the window. Looking again, he didn't see anything and he shook his head for being paranoid.

"So what happened Tyler?" Chloe said, looking at him questioningly.

Tyler shook his head and decided it was time to take a seat; it was going to be a long story.

* * *

"Elena, what do you think you could possibly do to help?" Bonnie asked exasperated as they drove to the hospital. "And shouldn't you let me drive at least? You were under some pretty big shock," she said looking at her nervously.

"I'm fine to drive. I'm just anxious about Jeremy and Jenna. I can't just sit around and let Katherine hurt my family again," Elena said, gripping the wheel tightly.

"What are you going to do? Use biting remarks against her? Not to beat you down, Elena, but you don't stand a chance of doing anything against Katherine," Bonnie said looking at her seriously.

"I can't stay home," Elena said firmly, knowing Bonnie was right. "But together…..I think we can be a big help. If you'll help me, that is."

Bonnie thought about it for a minute. "What do you have in mind?" she asked giving up. She knew how stubborn Elena could be and knew better than to talk her out of going to the hospital.

"I was thinking that at the least, I could be some sort of distraction for Katherine. Even try getting a few swings in and while she's distracted, you could do that mind thing you did on Stefan that one night in the woods," Elena thought out carefully.

"But only if you really feel up to it. You can always stay in the car as well," she said glancing anxiously at Bonnie.

"I'd rather go and help knowing I did what I could to protect my best friend then wait around," Bonnie said shaking her head.

"Now you know how I feel then," Elena said with a smile.

"No fair," Bonnie said smiling back. "But Elena, don't do anything stupid. Damon should be there. So hopefully, he'll be there when I make my move."

"Sounds like a plan, then," she said, turning gratefully to Bonnie.

"Probably a bad one, but it's something," Bonnie said shaking her head and clearing her mind. She wanted to be absolutely ready to do what she had to do before she faced Katherine. It wasn't hard magic for her, but it took focus and it was draining.

"Depending on how long I have to hold the spell, I may need to borrow energy from you. So be ready to take my hand when I need it," Bonnie said, getting antsy as they neared the hospital.

"I wonder if I should go in through the front or back? Probably back," Elena decided as she turned down the street, "if they think I'm in the hospital already, I might get weird looks walking in again."

"Kinda devious too," Bonnie added. "All, sneak in through the back door kind of thing…" she said laughing even though she was nervous.

"It's going to be alright," Elena said, nodding her head and saying it to convince Bonnie and herself that things would turn out just fine.

As she rounded the street behind the hospital parking lot, she saw a scene that made her gasp. "Oh my god, Bonnie is that them?"

Bonnie stared on as she saw Katherine holding a bloody looking Jeremy by the neck. And then seconds later, she threw him to the ground.

"I hope we're not too late," Elena said accelerating.

She took the turn sharply and was surprised to see Katherine hurrying by on the road, oblivious to anything. Making up her mind, Elena gripped the steering wheel and gave Bonnie a look. "Hold on tight," she said, accelerating the car as fast as she could toward Katherine.

Katherine turned just as Elena was feet from her and was met full on with Elena's car. She crashed into the windshield before rolling off the back and onto the concrete. Elena and Bonnie were thrown forward but were caught by the seatbelts. Not wasting time, Elena put the car in reverse and accelerated again, but she wasn't as lucky this time.

Katherine leapt onto the hood of the car, plunging her hand through the driver's side window and yanking Elena out.

* * *

Stefan decided to go to the Lockwood's via the woods so that he could follow any scents that led to or from there. He was surprised to come across multiple variations of that animal scent he smelled at Caroline's house. "How many are there?" he wondered to himself as he continued on his way. One of the smells he recognized as the same that was at Caroline's and he followed it. It stopped abruptly at a road and Stefan was left with no more leads.

"He must have transformed," Stefan deduced, now taking a more direct route to Tyler's. The smell was somewhat stronger around the house, but receded as he got closer. He didn't see any sign of Sheriff Forbes car yet, but he did notice two cars sitting in the driveway.

Being as quite as only vampires could Stefan stalked discreetly around the house, glancing in windows to see if there was any activity. Through the living room window, he caught sight of three people, two with their backs to him. He recognized Tyler, but he couldn't guess who the other two were. As he was watching, he saw Tyler catch a glimpse of him and he crouched low out of the way before Tyler could look harder.

They were having some sort of conversation. Zeroing in on the sound, Stefan remained hidden. If he heard Sheriff Forbes car, he would hide out until it was safe to approach her again.

"So what happened, Tyler?" Stefan heard a female voice ask. Something about it sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

He heard a shifting in movement as if someone went to sit down and then everything settled in; the silence was drawn out.

"Come now, Tyler. We're family. You can tell us how badly you screwed up," he heard a sharp male voice say.

"So they are Tyler's cousins or siblings," Stefan thought to himself. But from the tone of the male's voice, it sounded like a brother. Stefan had experience on that side.

"Who said I messed up? I was the one who was attacked. I was just released from the freaking hospital. Not to mention that I had to wake up and find out mom was killed," Tyler said angrily. "Which by the way, how did you two even find out?"

"We didn't," came the female's voice. "We didn't know any of this, Tyler. We came to town as soon as we could. I know we missed dad's funeral, but there was no way around it. As soon as we got to town, we came here and…"

"Brother and Sister," Stefan thought to himself, glad to start putting things together.

"We find a messed up kitchen with police tape and a shattered glass door," the brother cut in. "So obviously, I called the police to find out what was up and they told me what had happened."

"Did they find out anything useful?" Tyler asked in what Stefan thought was a hopeful, yet guilty way.

"The only thing that the woman at the station would say was that it was a wolf attack and that the sheriff would be looking into it."

"Were you attacked by a wolf too, Tyler?" the sister asked hesitantly.

"I…I think so, Chloe," came Tyler's anxious voice. "Honestly? I don't really remember being attacked at all…I must have been…too high," he ended.

Even to Stefan the lie sounded bad. He could tell Tyler knew something, but wasn't giving it up.

"Too high?" came the brothers angry voice. "Is that what you're calling it these days?" he added cooly.

"What are you playing at Rio?" Tyler said. Stefan could almost imagine Tyler's eyes darting around the room.

"You think I don't know you're secret, Tyler? Come on. We're family after all. You can tell me," Rio said. Stefan heard movement and guessed that Rio, as Tyler called him, was moving across the room to Tyler.

"What do you think, Chloe? Rio asked quietly.

There was silence as they waited for a reply.

"I think….he's full of shit," she said. Her response surprised Stefan. She sounded like a calm, nice person. "Weird how things changed in a matter of minutes," Stefan thought, stopping himself from leaning in the window to take a peek at what was happening.

It took all his restraint not to pop up when he heard a glass come crashing to the ground inside.

**Hope no one minded I kind of had Tyler included twice this story. But at least it's two different views: inside and outside. Anyways, hope you're liking this as much as I am. Reviews are always happily welcomed. Cheers.**


	16. Rebel Yell

"Elena!"

Damon heard Bonnie' s scream and sped off to see what had happened. He had heard the crash, but didn't really think anything of it until that scream.

"Watch Jeremy," Damon yelled over his shoulder.

He came to the scene just in time to see a really pissed off, bloodied Katherine sinking her fangs into Elena's neck. Elena screamed and struggled in her grasp, but before Damon could react, Katherine suddenly stopped, dropping Elena to the ground and clutching her head in pain. He recognized the look and saw a scared Bonnie standing near the passenger side door glaring Katherine down.

Elena wasted no time rushing away and heading to Bonnie, holding her hand out to her. Grasping it, Bonnie continued her concentrated look at Katherine, who practically writhed under her gaze.

Damon rushed her to attack, but she side stepped him easily, if not painfully.

"This isn't over," she managed to hiss between clenched teeth. And with one scathing look at Elena, she bolted as fast as she could from the scene.

"Go after her," Bonnie said seriously to Damon, halting her concentration.

He thought about it, but took in Elena's bloody state and Bonnie's shaky stance and shook his head. "She's far away by now. Next time we see each other, I want to be more prepared…We can't always use cars," he said smiling at them.

Bonnie took a deep breath and used the car to steady herself.

"Bonnie? Are you ok?" Elena asked worriedly as she looked Bonnie over.

"Fine. Just taking a breather…how about you? You're the one that's bleeding," she said, pointing to her neck. One side was an angry red from the pull of the seatbelt while the other was slowly seeping blood from Katherine's bite marks.

"Just a bit sore, but I'm good. It's not the first time I was attacked like that," Elena said, thinking of the time Vicky went after her.

Damon walked over to Elena and took a look at the wound, tilting his head. "She didn't tear anything, so it should heal up fine," he said, resisting the urge to lick her wounds. He looked her in the eye and it was almost as if Elena could sense what he was thinking.

Elena shook her head and took a moment to go over everything that had happened. But Damon was the first to talk.

"If I were Stefan, I'd be all 'Elena. What were you doing putting yourself in harm,'" Damon said mockingly. Then he smiled wide and looked at Elena. "But as such, it's just the wildly handsome and understanding Damon here and I say….You just ran Katherine over with your car…That took guts," he said admiringly. "I wish I'd have thought of something as destructive."

Elena couldn't help but to smile at the look of awe in Damon's face. "I don't know what came over me. I just stepped on the pedal and went from there. I guess something just snapped when I saw Katherine hurting my brother. I wanted to make her hurt….Jeremy…" she said suddenly, remembering the last time she saw him.

She ran away from the car and went to the back parking lot where she last saw Jeremy. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw Jeremy standing and surprisingly, hovering over Alaric, who looked injured.

"Jeremy," she yelled as she got closer.

Jeremy turned his head and looked at Elena, worry creasing his brows. "Are you alright?" he asked as she asked at the same time.

"I'm fine. A little bloody. How about you?" she said looking him over.

"I got thrown around a bit, but no real damage. Mr. Saltzman on the other hand has a broken arm," he said nodding at Rick.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Saltzman. What can I do to help?" she said, getting closer to him.

"Nothing," he said wincing and stifling a groan. "I'm just going to turn around and go into the hospital. They can help me out."

"What happened?" came Bonnie's voice as she showed up with Damon.

"Not much. Just broken arm McGee," Damon said, accessing the scene.

"It still hurts, Damon," Elena scalded, unconsciously rubbing her neck. "Why isn't your ring healing you yet?" she asked confused.

"Katherine took it in exchange for our lives," Jeremy said as he looked at all of them.

"What?" Elena said glancing down at his hand. She couldn't believe he would give up something as valuable as that.

"She was going to kill Jenna and Jeremy," Rick muttered as he grasped his arm. "There really wasn't any choice."

Elena looked at him with sheer respect on her face, wishing there was more she could do.

"Can't you loan him your ring and let it heal him or something?" Bonnie asked Damon.

Alaric looked a bit hopeful as he turned to Damon, but he shook his head.

"I thought witches were smart," Damon said shaking his head. "This ring only guards a vampire from the sun. It's not some superhero ring like Rick had on him. I'm afraid he's going to have to rough it like you humans."

"I figured as much," Alaric said after the sad looks on Bonnie and Elena's faces.

"Well considering everyone but me and Bonnie are bloody, I say you're going to have to go by yourself to get fixed," Damon said glancing around the group. "I'm going to get these hero wannabe's home and then go from there."

Rick nodded and walked a bit hurriedly into the hospital.

"I wish I could be more help," Elena said, watching Rick go into the hospital.

"You've done enough, warrior princess," Damon said smirking. "Not let's get the whole Brady bunch home, shall we?"

* * *

Tyler jumped back and threw a nearby vase at his brother, startled, as Rio's eyes glowed yellow.

"What the hell?" Tyler said, backing away.

Rio looked at him with raised brows, smiling at Tyler's reaction.

"What are you so surprised about?" Chloe asked. "Have you not looked in a mirror lately?"

Tyler shook his head, unbelieving. "What….what are you?" he asked, even though he knew what the answer was going to be.

"I guess I should cut you some slack. After all, your birthday is coming up soon…have you not wondered what you've been up to these days? Even I can tell you look worn a bit ragged," Rio said looking Tyler over.

Tyler continued to stand there and deny anything was wrong. "You're crazy. Both of you are."

"We're family, Tyler. If we're crazy…you are too," Chloe said smiling.

"Long story short," Rio said, bored with the conversation, "Is that we all come from a long line of werewolves. Hence, you are one too."

Tyler could only stand there in shock. He had seen Rio's eyes turn yellow; a sure sign that he was something unnatural. But he was having trouble being as nonchalant as Rio was obviously portraying.

"Why didn't anyone tell me? Why wasn't I warned?" was the only thing Tyler could blurt out. He felt betrayed that everyone in his family seemed to know what was going on besides himself.

"I thought maybe dad would bring it up," Chloe told him, looking at her nails. "But I guess he kind of ran out of time to get into details."

"How can you be so uncaring about our father?" Tyler snarled, trying to get away from the problem at hand.

"Please. Like you're really torn up that he's gone," Chloe continued before Rio could respond. "We all know he was an ass. Mom was the only one who really gave a damn about our well-being. Dad only cared about appearances."

Tyler couldn't really argue on that one; he agreed with Chloe that his father wasn't always the most supportive. Hell, hadn't he even gotten defensive with his mom preaching the same idea?" Alright, moving past his death, then, how did I not know our history? Are both of you?..."

But he couldn't finish his train of thinking. Knowing that he wasn't the only freak out there had his head spinning.

"We are twins, after all," Rio replied, looking at his sister appreciatively. "So to answer all your questions in one shot, Tyler, we come from a long, long line. Dad, Chloe and I, and now you, are all bonded in this one transformative act," Rio said shaking his head.

"How come no one ever told me any of this, then, considering I'm the youngest," Tyler said angrily.

"Like I said, I thought dad would bring it up eventually," Chloe replied. "We promised not to say anything until we knew for certain the gene was passed to you as well."

"And apparently it was and now you can know the truth," Rio said, looking a bit remorseful.

"I'm only sorry you had to go through it alone. At least I had Chloe and dad to figure things out," Rio added, looking like he genuinely cared, "Werewolves are tricky business."

"Which brings to question…what happened with mom?" Chloe asked, leaning in and getting closer at Tyler's face. "They say she was attacked by a wolf…."

She left the question hanging ominously, as if waiting for Tyler to admit to his crimes.

Tyler was about to respond when the doorbell rang.

"Saved by the bell, brother," Rio responded as he made his way to the front. "But then we shall find out what happened."

Tyler shook his head, still trying to take everything in. "What happened?" he thought to himself.

He was left standing there in shock as Rio and Chloe both went to the front door to see who was ringing the bell.

* * *

Jenna woke up from a bad dream and looked around the room. "I must have dozed off," she thought to herself as she woke up. The last thing she remembered was that Rick had gone to get coffee and that Elena had visited. She felt a twinge of guilt as she thought of falling asleep on Elena.

She shook off the feeling as she pressed the nurse button near her hand. She wanted to find out what was going on. Moments later, a nurse came in with a worried expression.

"Are you ok, Miss Sommers?" she asked, looking over her vitals and getting her stethoscope ready.

"Oh. I'm fine. I was just wondering what was going on. If I could go home today or not," she asked as the nurse took her blood pressure.

"Your results came out positive. You will need plenty of rest after everything that's happened, but from what the doctor has said, you can be released as soon as late afternoon," the nurse told her, making notes on her chart.

"Great, " Jenna said happily. "You haven't happened to see a Mr. Alaric Saltzman or an Elena Gilbert hanging around, have you?" she asked curiously.

"Elena Gilbert doesn't ring a bell, but Saltzman does. I believe he was just admitted for a broken arm," she said, putting the clipboard under her arm.

"What?" Jenna said with a start.

"That's all I know," the nurse responded with a shrug. "Sorry."

The nurse left and Jenna sat there in shock. "How the hell did he break his arm?"

She let all the questions she had flow to the back of her mind as she thought of more pressing matters.

"I need to get ahold of Elena and Jeremy," she thought to herself as she reached for the hospital phone.

She reached Elena's voicemail and tried Jeremy with the same results. "Home?" she thought hopefully, but received the same kind of response as the machine went off.

She laid her head back on the pillow in defeat. "Where could they be? "

Jenna pressed the call button on her remote with resolve. Shortly after, the same nurse came in.

"What's up now?" she asked weary. She had just been in before and knew that Jenna was stable.

"I was wondering if it was possible for me to visit Mr. Saltzman? He's kind of my boyfriend and I want to make sure he's alright," Jenna asked pleadingly.

The nurse looked her over sternly, but then her eyes softened. "Alright. But you have to be in a wheelchair, hospital regulations…..and I assure you, he's fine. Just a broken arm," she said, trying to dissuade Jenna.

"I'll go in a chair. I just want to make sure he's alright," she said. "And find out what happened," she thought to herself.

The nurse shook her head and told her that she'd be back with a chair in a moment. Jenna was just glad to be able to go anywhere at all.

"Did he trip on a coffee spill?" she thought shaking her head as she waited for the nurse to come back.

**Anyone else feel a bit happy that Katherine was run over by Elena? I got a kick out of it and hope they do that on the show. It's like a bitch slap from a human to a vampire, lol. Anyways, enjoy and review. P.S. I named the chapter Rebel yell because the only thing I could think of was Elena having this song blaring on the radio as she accelerated and it got stuck in my head. Random, I know. Cheers.**


	17. Awkwardness

Isobel stood over a mound of dirt that looked freshly disturbed and shook her head angrily. "You were fun while you lasted," she said as she looked around the woods.

She had tracked Frank's scent originally to some blood splatters some ways off, and then followed his deathly stench to the spot she stood on. Sniffing around, she also discovered that Katherine was indeed there along with the Salvatore's.

"Now the only question is who found you? Brothers or Katherine?" she wondered to herself. There was no way of knowing by just looking around here. Sighing she made up her mind. She would have to ask Damon if he'd run into Frank or not.

As she was shaking her head in anger, she caught a whiff of human on the wind. "I could go for some hiker for breakfast," she thought smiling.

But then she thought of Katherine's scent lingering in the air. "I don't need to find her yet…" she said contemplating her options. "Especially if I don't know if she knows I was spying on her."

"I have to know," she finally decided, turning away from the hiker smell. "I'll talk to Damon and see what he knows," she thought as she took off in the direction of the boarding house.

She took her cell phone out as she walked hurriedly to the boarding house. On the second ring, Cherie picked up. "Yes?"

"Cherie. Is our guest cooperating with you?"

"No problems here," Cherie said sounding bored. "Any sign of Frank?"

"Frank's dead," Isobel told her bluntly. "I'm going to find out what happened. I just wanted to make sure everything was fine at home."

There was silence as Cherie took in the news of Frank's death. "I will call you if anything at all happens," Cherie said after a moment.

"You better," Isobel said hanging up the phone.

* * *

Stefan had heard more than enough to have him worried. Now there would be three known werewolves running around town. He was still curious about what happened to Tyler's mom and to Tyler himself. But his questions would have to wait as he saw Sheriff Forbes approach. He slunk down low so he was out of view as she walked up the path and rang the doorbell.

Stefan took the opportunity to sneak off into a set of bushes nearer to where he could see what was going on near the front door. Moments later, the door opened and Stefan got to take a look at Rio. He favored his father was the first thing that came to Stefan's mind as he analyzed him. Second was that he looked pretty formidable with the sheer bulk of muscles he had.

"Sheriff Forbes. I haven't seen you in ages," Rio said smiling as Liz looked on startled. "Rio Lockwood," he said after she remained silent.

"Sorry. Yes. I remember you. It's just been so long. And I wasn't expecting you here," she said finding her voice. "I came to check on Tyler and to take his statement."

"Well he's fine and we'll take care of him for the time being. As for his statement, you'll have to ask him yourself," he said waving into the house.

"Who is it?" came Chloe's voice and suddenly she was in view.

Stefan scrunched his brow in confusion as he stared at her. She seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn't think of why. She was similar to Rio in the arch of her brow, the blue eyes, and the high cheek bones, but that's where the similarities ended. She didn't seem to carry their father's harsh looks and she was shorter by at least a foot.

Stefan thought hard as to why she looked so familiar to him, but he was drawing blank. He shook his head and resolved to think of it later when he wasn't busy hiding out and finding out information.

"Chloe," Liz said as she saw her. "Nice to see you too. How've you been?"

"Hi Sheriff. I've been good. Just busy running here and there….what's up?" she asked, her eyes darting between the sheriff and her brother.

"She wants to talk to Tyler," Rio told her.

"I'll go get him," she offered and turned around to head back in the house.

"I'm sorry about everything that's happened." Liz said honestly.

"It's not like it was your fault, Sheriff. Crazy things happen…" Rio said looking at Liz sadly.

"Still. It's my town and I feel responsible," she said honestly.

"Well if there's anything I can do to help you out, " he said looking behind him before continuing, "like with the council, just let me know."

She looked surprised that he even knew about the council. But she thought better of it. "Of course you'd know about the council. Your father must have told you since you're the eldest." She didn't know if she was comforted by the fact considering Tyler's background and the possibility that the man in front of her was also a werewolf too. All she needed was the thing she was hunting on the council…

"He did mention it to me quite a few times. No one else knows though," he said whispering.

Stefan wondered if he was lying. After all, he had a twin sister who probably shared a lot of the same information between them.

At that moment, Tyler came to the door. "What can I do for you Miss Forbes?" Tyler asked.

"I'd like to talk to you alone if you will," she said nodding at Rio.

"Of course. We'll be inside," Rio said, patting Tyler on the back.

Tyler put his hands in his pocket and waited for Liz to start talking before doing anything else.

"So can you tell me what you remember about that night," she asked, getting straight down to business.

Tyler began telling her the story he had come up with and had been playing out in his mind. "I don't really know. I had been really tired, but I wanted to get some fresh air. So I left my house after doing homework and went for a walk..."

"Do you know what time?" Liz asked, thinking of when his mother was attacked.

"No. I just remember telling my mom that I was going out and that'd I'd be back soon…so I went for a walk and sat by the bridge and I must have dozed off. The next thing I knew, some giant wolf was on me scratching at me, "Tyler said, shaking his head as if he was remembering something horrible.

Stefan wondered if any of it was true and was betting Liz thought the same thing.

"And the next thing I know, I'm in the hospital," Tyler ended. "Sorry I can't be of more help."

"Well I hear you are good at drawing…Do you think you can make out a sketch of the wolf so that I can hand it out to the officers so they know what to expect?" she asked, waiting for his reaction.

"Yeah…sure.." Tyler said after a minute. "Just give me some time."

They continued to make small talk, but Stefan was distracted by the buzzing coming from his pant pocket. He checked the caller id and made the decision to leave the area and head back into the small bit of woods on the other side before road began.

He opened the phone and answered. "Elena? Hey… I….what's wrong?" he asked, listening to the tone in her voice. "I'll be right there," he said after she was done talking.

* * *

"She alive back there?" Damon asked as they pulled into the driveway.

"Yeah. She just fell asleep about five minutes ago," Jeremy said looking over at Elena, who was slumped over on the window. He gently shook her awake as they were getting out of the car. She awoke with a start and groaned. "You scared me," she said, looking at Jeremy a bit angrily.

"Sorry. Just wanted to let you know that we're home," he said.

"Road trip's over, kiddies," Damon said sarcastically.

Elena shook her head and got out of the car. Before she reached the front door, she pulled out her phone and scrolled down to Stefan's number. Damon looked at her curiously, but she waved him ahead as she stood by the car.

"Elena?" he answered. "Hey….I"

"Stefan…" she said, getting a bit emotional out of nowhere. She shook her head and cleared her throat. Hearing his voice made he want him there even more, but she didn't need to freak him out.

"What's wrong?" he asked as she composed herself.

"There was a fight at the hospital. We're all ok, but could you just come to my house? I really want you here," she said, glancing up at the porch to see Damon staring, and then turning her back on her. She hung her head and waited for Stefan's reply.

"I'll be right there," he said quickly and hanging up the phone.

She approached the front porch and looked at everyone waiting there. "I thought Stefan should be here so we could all discuss everything," she said, walking up the steps.

"Jeremy, you need to go inside the house and tell Elena to come inside," Damon said, getting to business.

He looked at Damon and then Elena confused. "She's not a vampire," he said staring at Damon like he was crazy.

"You have to quit gnawing on bunny rabbits in public Elena, or you're going to give people the wrong impression," he said with a sarcastic nod at her. "Yes, Jeremy. I know she's not a vampire. Bonnie did a spell that backfired and you need to invite Elena in, got it?" he said raising his brows at him.

Elena looked at him and shook her head, but decided not to comment. Instead she looked over to Jeremy. "We were doing a spell to make sure Katherine couldn't come in, but I pictured both her and me, so I can't get in until I'm invited, so that's what happened," she explained.

"This is all so weird," he mumbled as he walked into the house and turned around. "Come on in, Elena."

"Non-vamps first," Damon said, waving his arms out as Bonnie entered, giving him an unamused look. Elena looked at Damon a moment before going in the house. He nodded his head. "You're safe to go," he said seriously.

She nodded her head and was relieved to find that she was no longer barred from entering the house. But her relief was short lived as she felt the pain start up in hear head. She yelled out in pain, but it didn't last long when she felt Damon's arms on her as he pulled her outside.

"What the hell…" she panted as she bent over and put her hands on her knees, taking a moment to calm down.

"Bonnie, do you not know how to read? Was there some fine print to the spell you failed to see?" Damon asked angrily.

She came rushing out the door and went to Elena's side. "I know how to read. The spell was for a simple un-invitation. I don't know why she's still reacting. She was allowed in the house. You saw her walk in…I don't know why..." she said, looking dismayed.

"Wait," Elena said suddenly. "It's stupid, but just maybe," she said standing up and taking off her shirt.

Damon and Bonnie looked on confused as to why she was stripping down to her bra. "If this is your way of thanking me, I accept," Damon said smirking. Bonnie smacked him as she looked at Elena.

"What are you doing?" she asked, but Elena waved her off, took a deep breath, and walked into the house again.

Damon sped in, putting his arms around her-ready to pull her out- when Elena let out a sigh of relief. "So glad that worked," she said smiling.

"I was trying to think why I was allowed to enter and then shoved out again," she explained in response to their confused faces," and then I remembered…I have Katherine's blood on my shirt…the magicks that be, as you call it Bonnie, were probably confused," she said smiling, proud of herself for coming to that conclusion.

"It always goes back to blood, doesn't it…" Damon said, shaking his head. "Should you be more worried Elena understands magic a little more than you do?" he said to Bonnie.

Bonnie ignored Damon and looked at Elena with relief, glad that she hadn't messed up big time with the spell. But she didn't get to talk before they heard a voice from the porch.

"What the hell's going on? Stefan asked, eyeing a shirtless Elena standing with Damon's arms around her.

**Haha. Everyone loves awkward moments. Especially when it comes to the brothers. Anyways... This is the last chapter for this title at least.**** I messed up with combining all the chapters and people aren't able to review. So, I will fix it by ending this story title here, but continuing it under the creative title Homecoming: Continued. lol**

**GO HERE: net/s/6160327/1/after you finish this chapter. (But type fanfiction. in front to have it work)**

**SO the story isn't ending, just continuing on under another name. As promised, I plan to continue till the new season starts. **


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